SANTA  BARBARA  CGLLEZE  LIBIUIT 


Ex  Xibris 

This  book  was  presented  to   the  Industrial  Division 
Library    of    Santa    Barbara    State    College    by 


<Z  , 


Library   Collection  Sponsored  by   Pi  SIGMA  CHI 


f 


TTeit-JBoofc  Series  in  Education 

EDITED  BY  PAUL   MONROE,   PH.D. 


PRINCIPLES 

OF 

SECONDARY    EDUCATION 


TEXT-BOOK  SERIES  IN  EDUCATION 


THE   HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION 

By  PAUL  MONROE,  Ph.D.,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   EDUCATION 

By  ERNEST  N.  HENDERSON,  Ph.D.,  Adelphi  College. 

STATE  AND   COUNTY  EDUCATIONAL   REORGANIZATION 
By  ELLWOOD  P.  CuBBEKLEY,.Ph.D.,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  Uni- 
versity. 

PRINCIPLES   OF   SECONDARY   EDUCATION 
By  a  number  of  Specialists. 

TO    BE    ISSUED 

PRINCIPLES    OF    STATE   AND    COUNTY    SCHOOL   ADMIN- 
ISTRATION 

By  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY,  Ph.D.,  Leland  Stanford  Junior 
University,  and  EDWARD  C.  ELLIOTT,  Ph.D.,  University  of 
Wisconsin. 

PRINCIPLES   OF  CITY   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

By  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY,  Ph.D.,  and  EDWARD  C.  ELLIOTT,  Ph.D. 

HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 
By  PAUL  MONROE,  Ph.D. 


SOURCE   BOOK  SERIES   IN  EDUCATION 


A  SOURCE  BOOK  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION  FOR 

THE   GREEK   AND  •  ROMAN   PERIODS 
By  PAUL  MONROE,  Ph.D.,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

TO    BE    ISSUED 

A     SOURCE     BOOK     IN  •  STATE     AND     COUNTY     SCHOOL 

ADMINISTRATION 
By  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBKRLKY,  Ph.D.,  and  EDWARD  C.  ELLIOTT,  Ph.D. 

A   SOURCE   BOOK   IN   CITY   SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION 
By  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLEY,  Ph.D.,  and  EDWARD  C.  ELLIOTT,  Ph.D. 

A   SOURCE   BOOK    IN   THE    HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION    IN 

THE   UNITED   STATES 
BY  PAUL  MONROE,  Ph.D. 


PRINCIPLES 


OF 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION 


W^ritten  by  a  Number  of  Specialists 


EDITED    BY 

PAUL   MONROE,    PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF  THE   HISTORY  OF   EDUCATION,   TEACHERS   COLLEGE 
COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY 


THE    MACM1LLAN    COMPANY 
1914 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October,  1914. 


XortoooU 

J.  S.  dishing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

THE  scope  of  secondary  education  is  now  so  broad,  its 
purpose  and  aim  are  so  diversified,  that  no  one  specialist  can 
aspire  to  be  accepted  as  an  authority  in  the  entire  field. 
The  content  of  secondary  education  is  so  diverse,  methods  of 
instruction  and  of  administration  are  so  varied,  that  no  one 
practitioner  can  hope  to  present  views  acceptable  to  all  en- 
gaged in  the  field.  When  unity  of  views  or  of  practice  does 
not  exist,  it  is  impossible  to  express  a  unified  philosophy  or 
to  formulate  a  procedure  universally  valid.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, it  seems  best  to  prepare  the  prospective  teacher 
or  administrator  for  his  work  by  giving  him  the  conclusions 
representing  the  best  thought  and  practice  in  this  entire  field. 
Especially  is  this  procedure  advantageous  if,  as  in  the  case 
of  this  volume,  the  specialists  writing  have  a  broad  acquaint- 
ance with  present  practices,  intelligent  views  and  wide  sym- 
pathies in  the  whole  field  of  education,  and  also  a  tolerance 
of  innovation  justified  by  experience. 

The  insight  which  results  from  the  consideration  of  views 
of  many  specialists,  thus  animated  by  a  common  purpose  and 
possessing  a  wide  experience  in  our  secondary  schools,  is 
superior  to  the  unity  which  may  come  from  the  views  of  one 
man  no  matter  what  his  qualifications.  Moreover,  the  prin- 
ciples thus  derived  will  be  much  more  representative  of 
actual  conditions,  and  hence  will  offer  a  more  adequate 
preparation  for  the  novice. 

Several  of  the  chapters  of  this  volume  are  taken  wholly  or 
in  part  from  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education.  The  remaining 
chapters  are  prepared  for  this  volume  alone.  The  author  of 
any  chapter  has  no  responsibility  for  the  views  expressed  in 

JUNTA  SAEDAHA  COLIEF  UBRAflr 


vi  Preface 

any  other ;  nor  is  the  editor  necessarily  in  sympathy  with  the 
views  expressed.  At  various  points  there  may  be  conflict 
between  the  views  advanced  by  the  various  writers.  The 
unity  of  the  volume  is  to  be  found  in  a  common  purpose,  a 
sympathetic  and  tolerant  attitude,  and  the  experience  upon 
which  the  views  of  each  specialist  are  based. 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  furnish  the  student  a 
body  of  fact  and  opinion  that  through  study  and  discussion  he 
may  acquire  some  knowledge  of  the  entire  field  of  secondary 

education,  its  purposes  and  its  problems. 

THE   EDITOR. 


CONTRIBUTORS 

CHAPTER  I.     MEANING  AND  SCOPE  OF  SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 
The  Editor. 

CHAPTER   II.     HISTORIC    SKETCH    OF    SECONDARY    EDUCATION. 
The  Editor. 

CHAPTER    III.     EUROPEAN    SYSTEMS    OF    SECONDARY    SCHOOLS. 
Frederic  E.  Farrington,  Ph.D.,  Associate  Professor  of  Edu- 
cation, Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

CHAPTER    IV.     THE    HIGH    SCHOOL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE    UNITED 
STATES. 

State  Systems  of  High  Schools  : 

Ellwood  P.  Cubberley,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Educational 
Administration,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University, 
Stanford  University,  Cal. 

Rural  High  Schools  : 

Edwin  R.  Snyder,  Ph.D.,  State  Normal  School,  San 
Jose,  Cal. 

Maintenance  and  Support : 

Ellwood  P.  Cubberley,  Ph.D. 

Inspection  and  Accrediting  of  School : 

W.  Scott  Thomas,  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  Cal. 

CHAPTER  V.     ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

High  School  Administration : 

W.  D.  Lewis,  Principal,  William  Penn  High  School  for 
Girls,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


viii  Contributors 

The  Curriculum  : 

David  Snedden,  Ph.D.,  Commissioner  of  Education,  State 
of  Massachusetts. 

The  Elective  System  : 

David  Snedden,  Ph.D. 

Ttie  Six -Year  Course  of  Study  : 
David  Snedden,  Ph.D. 

CHAPTER  VI.     THE  PRIVATE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL. 

James  G.  Crosswell,  Head  Master,  The  Brearley  School, 
New  York  City. 

CHAPTER  VII.     PSYCHOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  OF  ADOLESCENCE. 

Guy  Montrose  Whipple,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Edu- 
cational Psychology,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

CHAPTER  VIII.     MORAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

Edward  0.  Sisson,  Ph.D.,  Commissioner  of  Education, 
Boise,  Idaho. 

CHAPTER  IX.     THE  VERNACULAR. 

English  Literature  : 

Franklin  T.  Baker,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English  Language 
and  Literature,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. 

George  P.  Krapp.  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English,  Columbia 
University. 

Composition : 

Franklin  T.  Baker,  Ph.D. 

Oral  Speech  : 

Erastus  Palmer.  A.M.,  Professor  of  Public  Speaking,  Col- 
lege of  the  City  of  New  York. 

CHAPTER  X.     THE  CLASSICAL  LANGUAGES  AND  LITERATURES. 

Latin  : 

Gonzalez  Lodge,  Ph.D..  Professor  of  Latin  and  Greek, 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 


Contributors  ix 

Greek : 

Thomas  D.  Goodell,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Greek,  Yale  Uni- 
versity, New  Haven,  Conn. 

CHAPTER  XI.     MODERN  LANGUAGES. 

Elijah  William  Bagster- Collins,  A.M.,  Associate  Professor 
of  German,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

CHAPTER  XII.     THE  NATURAL  SCIENCES. 

George  R.  Twiss,  B.Sc.,  State  High  School  Inspector,  and 
Professor  of  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Secondary 
Education,  Ohio  State  University. 

CHAPTER  XIII.     MATHEMATICS. 

David  Eugene  Smith,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Mathematics, 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

CHAPTER  XIV.     THE  SOCIAL  SCIENCES. 
History  : 

Henry  E.  Bourne,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History,  Western 
Reserve  University. 

Civics : 

James  Sullivan,  Ph.D.,  Principal  of  Boys'  High  School, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Economics  : 

Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, Columbia  University. 

CHAPTER  XV.     THE  FINE  ARTS  AND  Music. 
Art  in  Education : 

John  Dewey.  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Philosophy,  Columbia 
University. 

Methods  of  Teaching  A  rt ;  Design : 

Arthur  Wesley  Dow,  Professor  of  Fine  Arts,  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University. 

Music  : 

Charles  H.  Farnsworth,  Associate  Professor  of  Music, 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 


x  Contributors 

CHAPTER  XVI.     THE  HOUSEHOLD  ARTS. 

Ann  Gilchrist  Strong,  Professor  of  Household  Economics, 
University  of  Cincinnati. 

CHAPTER  XVII.     VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION. 

Industrial  Education : 

Charles  R.  Richards,  S.B.,  Director  Cooper  Union  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  and  Art. 

Commercial  Education : 

Joseph  H.  Johnson,  D.C.S.,  Dean  of  School  of  Commerce, 
New  York  City. 

Agricultural  Education : 

Clarence  H.  Robison,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Education,  Nor- 
mal School,  Montclair,  N.  J. 

CHAPTER  XVIII.     HYGIENE  AND  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Thomas  A.  Storey,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Physical  Education, 

College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
George  R.  Meylan,  M.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Physical 

Education,  Columbia  University. 

CHAPTER  XIX.     ATHLETICS. 

Clark  W.  Hetherington,  A.B.,  Professor  of  Physical  Educa- 
tion, and  Director  of  Athletics,  University  of  Missouri. 

CHAPTER   XX.     SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF    HIGH    SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 
Clarence  A.  Perry,  Ph.D.,  Division  of  Recreation,  Russell 
Sage  Foundation. 

CHAPTER  XXL     RP:ORGANI/ATION  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 
David  Snedden,  Ph.D. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTION:  MEANING   AND   SCOPE   OF   SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

PAGE 

FUNDAMENTAL     IMPORTANCE      OF      THE      SECONDARY 

SCHOOL      i 

NO  .AGREEMENT  AS  TO   SCOPE   OR    MEANING    OF    SEC- 
ONDARY EDUCATION i 

Reasons  for  this  Diversity       ........        2 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  DETERMINED   BY  THE   NATURE 

OF  THE   PROCESS:    TRAINING   vs.   INSTRUCTION       .        3 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  BASED  UPON  SUBJECT  MATTER        4 

DISTINCTION    BASED    UPON    PROFESSIONAL    PREPARA- 
TION     5 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  AS  A   CLASS  DISTINCTION.         .        6 

SECONDARY    EDUCATION    AS    A    MEANS    OF   SOCIAL    SE- 
LECTION      7 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  BASED  ON  PHYSIOLOGICAL  AND 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  AGE 9 

SECONDARY     EDUCATION     DETERMINED    BY    THE    STU- 
DENT'S INTERESTS  AND   ABILITIES         .        .         .        .10 

THE     PRESENT     IS     A     COMBINATION     OF    ALL     THESE 

FACTORS ii 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  AS   A    PREPARATION    FOR     SO- 
CIAL SERVICE  AND  A  TRAINING  IN  EFFICIENCY      .      14 


CHAPTER    II 

HISTORIC   SKETCH   OF   SECONDARY  EDUCATION 

ORIGIN   OF   THE    DISTINCTION    BETWEEN    ELEMENTARY 

AND   SECONDARY   EDUCATION        ..'...  16 

Origin  of  the  Practical  Distinction 16 

Origin  of  the  Theoretical  Distinction IQ 


xii  Contents 


PAGE 


THE  SECONDARY   SCHOOLS   OF  GREECE         .        .        .        .22 

The  Philosophical  Schools 22 

The  Rhetorical  Schools 22 

THE  ROMAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 24 

The  Grammar  School 25 

The  Curriculum 25 

The  Roman  Contribution  to  Method 27 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND   THE   SECONDARY  SCHOOL         .  29 

Types  and  Extent  of  these  Schools 30 

Free  Schools  and  Endowments 31 

The  Curriculum 33 

Method 34 

THE    SECONDARY    SCHOOL    IN   THE    RENAISSANCE-REF- 
ORMATION PERIOD.     THE  LATIN  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  36 

The  Establishment  of  Schools 37 

Number  and  Type  of  Schools 38 

Curriculum  of  the  Latin  Grammar  Schools 40 

Method  of  the  Grammar  Schools  .......  42 

THE  VARIANT  TYPE.     THE  REALISTIC   SCHOOL    ...  44 

Organization  of  the  New  Type  of  Education          ....  45 

The  English  Academies        ........  46 

The  German  Rcahchulen      ........  47 

Influence  on  the  Curriculum 49 

Influence  on  Method       .........  50 

THE  LATIN   GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  IN  AMERICA       .         .        .51 

Curriculum      ...........  53 

THE  ACADEMY  IN  AMERICA 54 

Curriculum  and  Method 57 

THE  AMERICAN  HIGH   SCHOOL 60 

Origin       .        .        .        .        .         .        .        .        .        .        .         .61 

Development  of  the  High  School  System 64 

CHAPTER    III 

SECONDARY    EDUCATION    IN    EUROPE 

FRANCE 

POSITION   OF   SECONDARY  EDUCATION  ABROAD         .        .71 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SYSTEM  OF  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS  72 

THE   SYSTEM 74 

Centralization  of  Control 74 

Secondary  Education  is  nowhere  compulsory  in  France       .        .  74 

Types  of  Schools 75 


Contents  xiii 


Unrest  in  Secondary  Education 75 

Primary  and  Secondary  Schools  Denned 76 

Characteristics  of  the  Course 78 

Baccalaureate  Degree 85 

School  Population 87 

Boarding  Schools 87 

Teaching  Force 88 

Salaries 91 

School  Fees 93 

Budget 93 

EDUCATION   OF   GIRLS 94 

Organization    ...........  95 

Program  of  Studies 96 

School  Population 98 

Academic  Distinctions 99 

Standards  of  Teachers 99 

General  Characteristics 100 

GERMANY 

SOCIAL  BACKGROUND 101 

EDUCATIONAL   CONTROL 102 

PRIMARY  AND   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS 105 

BOYS'   HIGHER   SCHOOLS 108 

Gymnasium 108 

Realgymnasium       ..........  109 

Oberrealschule no 

Number  of  Schools in 

Fees 112 

EARLY   SPECIALIZATION   DEFERRED 112 

Reform  Plan  Schools 113 

EDUCATION   OF   GIRLS.     TYPES    OF   SCHOOLS        .         .         .115 
Reorganization  of  Girls'  Schools     .        .         .         .        .         .         .116 

Program  of  Studies         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .118 

TRAINING    OF   TEACHERS 120 

Salaries    .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .121 

ENGLAND 

ENGLISH  AND   CONTINENTAL  CONDITIONS  CONTRASTED  122 

"PUBLIC"    SCHOOLS   AND   PUBLIC   LIFE 123 

Classical  Influence 125 

Organization    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .126 

Programs  of  Studies        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .127 


xiv  Contents 


Training  for  Leadership 128 

School  Life 129 

Characteristics  of  the  Public  Schools 130 

PREPARATORY  SCHOOLS        .        .        .      - 130 

OTHER  TYPES   OF   SECONDARY  SCHOOLS      .        .        .        .131 
EFFECTS   OF  THE   EDUCATION  ACT   OF   1899          .        .         .132 

SECONDARY  SCHOOL  DEFINED 134 

REGULATIONS   OF  THE  BOARD   OF  EDUCATION  .        .        .135 
OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  FREE  EDUCATION          .        .        .        .136 

Present  Conditions 137 

PROGRAM   OF   STUDIES 138 

COMPARATIVE  FIGURES  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOL  POPU- 
LATION        140 

CHAPTER    IV 

THE   HIGH    SCHOOL   SYSTEMS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

STATE  SYSTEMS 146 

Legal  Provisions 146 

The  General  Type 146 

Organization  of  Control 148 

Rural  High  Schools 149 

Curriculum          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -150 

Statistical  Summary  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .151 

MAINTENANCE  AND  SUPPORT 154 

Stages  in  Development  . 155 

Types  of  Highest  Development 158 

Basis  of  Apportionment  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .160 

INSPECTION  AND  ACCREDITING   OF   SCHOOLS     .        .        .161 

CHAPTER   V 
THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   HIGH   SCHOOL 

THE    ADMINISTRATION    OF   THE  HIGH   SCHOOL  DETER- 
MINES  ITS   EFFICIENCY 174 

The  Principal  is  the  Chief  Factor  in  the  Administration       .        .174 
Full  Support  of  the  Faculty  Necessary  for  the  Best  Results          .     175 

THE   PROBLEM   OF   ADMINISTRATION 175 

The  Course  of  Study 175 

THE   DAILY  ROSTER  FOR   PROMOTION  BY   SUBJECT         .     177 
Data  Necessary  as  a  Working  Basis      .         .        .        .        .        .178 

Non-conflicting  Term  Units  are  Necessary 180 


Contents  xv 

PAGE 

Regular  and  Irregular  Students 180 

Double  Periods 180 

Advantages  of  a  Regular  Roster  Maker 182 

ASSIGNMENT   OF  WORK  TO   TEACHERS 182 

The  Number  of  Periods  required  a  Week  from  each  Teacher  183 

Special  Duties 184 

THE  PRINCIPAL'S    RELATION   TO    THE    VARIOUS  ACTIVI- 
TIES  OF   THE   SCHOOL 184 

RELATION  BETWEEN  THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  AND   THE 

HIGH   SCHOOL 186 

Cooperation  between  the  High  School  Principal  and  the  Gram- 
mar School  Principal 186 

Visits  and  Reports  between  the  Schools        .        .        .        .        .187 
RELATION    BETWEEN    THE    HIGH    SCHOOLS    AND    THE 

COLLEGES .  188 

DISCIPLINE 188 

Successful  Discipline  depends  on  Understanding  the  Adoles- 
cent         iSS 

Public  Sentiment  of  the  School  the  most  Important  Factor          .  189 
Gradual  Introduction  of  Student  Participation  in  School  Gov- 
ernment          189 

Social    and    Political   Reasons    for    Student    Participation   in 

School  Government 191 

HUMANIZING   THE   SCHOOL 193 

Student  Advisor  System 193 

ADAPTING   THE   SCHOOL  TO    COMMUNITY  NEEDS     .        .194 

The  Changed  Problem 194 

Study  of   Conditions  Essential  as  a  Basis  for  Change  in  Pro- 
cedure ............  195 

The  Community  Element 195 

The  Cooperation  of  Industry  Necessary  to  the  Fullest  Service  of 

the  Secondary  School 199 

This  Broader  Service  demands  Open-mindedness  of  the  Princi- 
pal        ............  200 

THE   PRINCIPAL  AND   THE  TEACHER 201 

Who  shall  Pass  ? 202 

Limitation  of  the  Teacher  whose  Chief  Interest  is  in  his  Sub- 
ject          202 

The  Purpose  of  Teaching   a  Given  Subject  should   determine 

Content  and  Method    .........  203 

An  Illustration  from  History  ........  204 

The  Principal  must  visit  Classes    .......  206 

The  Teachers'  Meeting.     It  should  be  Democratic       .         .         .  207 


xvi  Contents 

SCIENTIFIC   MEASUREMENT  ESSENTIAL 208 

Graph  showing  an  Uneven  Department 209 

Typical  Statement  of  Pupil-hours  per  Teacher      .        .        .        .210 

THE  PRINCIPAL  AND   THE  BOARD    OF  EDUCATION    .        .211 

HOW  THE  DIRECTION   OF   OUR  HIGH    SCHOOLS   CAN  BE 
MADE  MORE  ATTRACTIVE   TO  FIRST-CLASS   MEN    . 

THE   CURRICULUM 

Types  of  High  School  Curricula 

THE  ELECTIVE   SYSTEM   OF   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS   . 

SIX-YEAR  COURSE   OF   STUDY 

CHAPTER    VI 
THE   PRIVATE   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PRIVATE  SCHOOLS      .        .        .        .233 

VALUE  OF  PRIVATE  SCHOOLS 235 

PRIVATE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 235 

Vocational  Schools 237 

Preparatory  Schools 239 

Military  Schools 240 

Denominational  Schools 241 

SOCIAL  SELECTION 241 

CHAPTER   VII 
PSYCHOLOGY   AND   HYGIENE   OF  ADOLESCENCE 

PHYSIOLOGICAL    SIGNIFICANCE    OF     THE    ADOLESCENT 

PERIOD 246 

Variability  is  Itself  Characteristic  of  the  Period    .        .        .  248 

Physiological  Age 248 

The  Concept  of  Retardation  and  Acceleration        ....     248 

Relation  of  Physiological  Age  to  Success  in  High  School       .         .     249 

Growth  in  Height  and  Weight 

Growth  and  Health 

Growth  by  Parts 

Growth  of  the  Bones 

Hygiene  of  Bone  Growth       .....•• 

Growth  of  the  Muscles 

Growth  of  Heart  and  Arteries 

Circulatory  Disturbances      .....•• 
Growth  of  the  Lungs 

Training  for  Vital  Capacity 


Contents  xvii 

PAGE 

Changes  in  the  Voice 256 

Period  of  Mutation     .........  256 

Hygiene  and  Training  of  the  Voice       ......  256 

Growth  of  the  Brain 257 

THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PHENOMENA   OF  ADOLESCENCE     .  257 

Primary  and  Secondary  Sex  Characters 258 

Ramifications  of  the  Sex  Instinct  in  Mental  Life  ....  259 

Sensory  Development 259 

New  Dermal  Consciousness  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .260 

New  Smell  and  Taste  Interests     .         .         .         .         .         .         .261 

New  Aural  Interests    .........  261 

The  Sex  Instinct 262 

Sex  Charms  and  Fetishes      ........  263 

The  Development  of  Love      ........  264 

Instruction  in  Sex  Hygiene  ........  266 

The  Migratory  Instinct    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .270 

THE   SOCIAL  ASPECTS    OF  ADOLESCENCE        .         .         .         .272 

The  Social  Instincts 272 

Gregariousness     ..........  273 

Sympathy    ...........  273 

Approbation        ..........  274 

Altruism     ...........  275 

Self-organized  Groups 275 

Maxims  for  organizing  Societies 276 

Variety  of  Adult-made  Societies 277 

School  Organizations 278 

High  School  Secret  Societies 279 

Alleged  Merits 279 

Alleged  Faults     ..........  280 

Solutions  of  the  Fraternity  Problem      ......  281 

Self-government  Plans 282 

The  "  School  City  "......... 

Simpler  Self-government  Plans     ....... 

Group  Work  in  the  Classroom 

RELIGIOUS   AND   MORAL  ASPECTS    OF  ADOLESCENCE 

Religious  Conversion  in  Adolescence 

The  Explanation          ......... 

Tendencies  toicard  Conventionalizing  Conversion  .... 

Periods  of  Intellectual  Reconstruction 

Studies  of  Ideals 

Ideals  depend  on  Age  ......... 

Ideals  depend  on  Sex  ......... 

Ideals  depend  on  Home  Life  and  Social  Station    .... 


xviii  Contents 

PAGE 

Ideals  depend  on  Type  of  School  Instruction         ....  290 

The  Variety  of  Occupational  Ideals 291 

Their  Alterations         . 291 

Overambitious  Ideals    .........  291 

MENTAL  PATHOLOGY  OF  ADOLESCENCE      .      .      .      .292 

Developmental  Retardation 292 

Higher  Retardations  as  a  School  Problem     .....  294 

Adolescent  Criminality 294 

Causes        ...........  294 

Remedies     ...........  296 

INTELLECTUAL  GROWTH   IN   ADOLESCENCE  .        .        .        .297 

The  Problem  of  Formal  Discipline 298 

The  Older  View 300 

Arguments  against  It           ........  301 

Experimental  Studies  of  Transfer         ......  302 

Conclusions  based  upon  Adults  may  not  apply  to  Children    .         .  304 

Negative  Transfer        .........  304 

The  Teacher  as  a  Factor       ........  305 

Alleged  Inadequacies  of  High  School  Science       ....  306 

Linguistic  Interests 307 

Literary  Interests 307 

Art  Interests 308 

COEDUCATION 308 

CHAPTER   VIII 
MORAL  AND    RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

HOW  THE  WILL  GROWS 313 

Will  Development  through  Will  Action 313 

Intellectual  Aspect 315 

The  Moral  Element  pervades  All 316 

The  Will  Exercises  on  Problems 317 

The  Sources  of  Energy 318 

The  Broadening  of  Sympathy 319 

THE  PROBLEMS  OF  YOUTH 320 

What  are  the  Problems  ? 3-° 

Sources  of  Information 321 

The  Larger  Life 323 

The  Point  of  Contact 325 

The  Great  Problems 325 

THE  GREAT  DETERMINATIONS 327 

The  Realization  of  the  Self 327 

Physique 327 


Contents  xix 

PAGE 

Intellectual  Initiative  . -329 

Personal  Ideals  . 330 

Vocation 33! 

Effect  upon  the  Curriculum 333 

Vocational  Guidance 333 

The  Zest  of  Life .334 

Mutual  Relations  of  the  Sexes 336 

Honor  and  Ideals         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -336 

A  Gap  in  the  Curriculum     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .337 

WAYS  AND   MEANS 338 

School  Life 338 

School  Government 339 

School  Work 341 

Studies 342 

Moral  Values      ..........  343 

The  Classics        ..........  343 

Heroes         ...........  344 

The  New  Order   ..........  345 

Moral  Idealism  ..........  346 

RELIGION 347 

The  Secular  School 347 

Reaction       .        .            348 

The  Letter  and  the  Spirit 349 

Means      ............  350 

THE  HIGH   SCHOOL  TEACHER 350 

Limitation  by  Conditions 350 

Remedies 351 

CHAPTER    IX 
THE  VERNACULAR 

THE  TEACHING   OF  LITERATURE 356 

ENGLISH   LITERATURE  IN   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS        .         .357 

Literary  Appreciation       .........  358 

Study  of  the  Vocabulary 358 

The  Literary  Language 359 

The  Philological  Method 360 

Technique  and  Structure         ........  361 

Moral  and  Cultural  Value 362 

Grading  the  Material 363 

THE  TEACHER  AS  AN  INTERPRETER   OF   LITERATURE      .  363 

COMPOSITION 373 

The  Teaching  of  Composition 374 


xx  Contents 

TRAINING  IN  ORAL  SPEECH 379 

COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS  IN  ENGLISH   .  382 

CHAPTER   X 

THE   CLASSICAL   LANGUAGES  AND   LITERATURES 
LATIN 

PLACE  IN  THE   CURRICULUM 387 

THE  VALUE   OF  LATIN 387 

METHODS   OF  TEACHING 389 

Difficulties  of  the  Student 390 

The  Introductory  Work ;  the  Customary  Method          .        .        .  391 

The  Oral  or  Direct  Method 395 

Pronunciation 396 

The  Later  Reading 398 

Transition  to  Caesar  .........  398 

Cicero          .         .         .          .          .         .         .         .         .         .         .  401 

Ovid 403 

Vergil 403 

Other  Selections  ..........  405 

GREEK 

PURPOSE  AND  VALUE 406 

The  Approach  to  the  Hellenic  Spirit 407 

METHOD  FOR  BEGINNERS 408 

Pronunciation  ...........  409 

Oral  Methods 410 

Reading 411 

Minor  Principles  of  Method 413 

PLACE  IN  SCHOOLS 415 

VISUAL  AIDS 

LATIN  AND  GREEK 420 

CHAPTER    XI 
MODERN   LANGUAGES 

PURPOSE  OF  STUDY  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGE     .        .        .424 

METHOD 424 

Pronunciation 424 

Oral  Practice 425 

Grammar 427 

Written  Work 428 

Reading 429 


'Contents  xxi 

PAGE 

RESULTS  OF  SCHOOL  WORK 431 

PLACE  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES  IN  THE  CURRICULUM  431 

United  States 432 

In  Colleges  ...........  432 

College  Entrance  Requirements      .......  433 

Reports  on  the  Curriculum  Requirements  and  Methods  .  .  .  433 

Distribution  of  Pupils  ........  435 

Germany 436 

Method  ...........  437 

France 439 

England 442 

CHAPTER    XII 
THE   NATURAL   SCIENCES 

EDUCATIONAL  FUNCTIONS  AND  VALUES   OF    THE 
SCIENCES 

WHAT  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY   SHOULD  DO  FOR   THE  PUPILS  446 

Specific  Habits 448 

The  Law  of  Habit  Formation       .......  449 

Application  of  the  Law  of  Association  in  Teaching  .  .  .  450 

Scientific  Information      .........  450 

The  Choice  of  Subject  Matter       .......  450 

Criteria  for  the  Choice  of  Subject  Matter       .         .         .         .         -451 

The  Mastery  of  Content  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .452 

Inspiration  and  Scientific  Ideals 453 

Mental  Discipline 454 

Applying  the  Principles  of  Transfer     ......  455 

How  Concepts  of  Method  are  built  up  .         .         .         .         .         .  456 

Precepts  for  the  Conduct  of  Transferable  Training  .  .  -457 

Developing  Powers  of  Interpretation 458 

THE  TECHNIQUE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  SCIENCES 

CURRENT   METHODS 45Q 

The  Problem  as  the  Center  of  Unification 459 

THE   CLASS    CONFERENCE 460 

THE  FUNCTION    OF   THE   LABORATORY 46-' 

Number  of  Laboratory  Exercises  per  Year 464 

Size  of  Laboratory  Divisions 464 

Double  Periods 465 

Form  of  Notes 465 

Inspection  of  Notes  by  the  Teacher 466 


xxii  Contents 


LECTURE  DEMONSTRATIONS 467 

FIELD   OBSERVATION 467 

REVIEWS 47° 

The  Topical  Recitation 471 

Written  Reviews 472 

THE  SCIENCES  AND   THE   CURRICULUM 

COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS 473 

THE   SCIENCE   SUBJECTS 475 

GEOGRAPHY 

GEOGRAPHIC   CONTROLS 476 

BEGIN  WITH  LOCAL   PROBLEMS 477 

TEXTBOOKS 479 

REPORTS    OF    NATIONAL     COMMITTEES,     BOOKS,     AND 

MAGAZINE  ARTICLES 480 

PHYSIOGRAPHIC  PROCESSES 482 

The  Geographic  Cycle 482 

Physiographic  Controls 483 

PRINCIPLES   OF  SELECTION   AND    ORDER        .         .         .         .483 

FIELD  WORK,   LABORATORY  WORK,   AND   EQUIPMENT     .  484 

ORDER   OF  TOPICS 485 

BIOLOGY 

BIOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS 486 

POINTS   OF  VIEW  FROM  BIOLOGICAL   STUDY       .         .         .486 

PRINCIPLES  TO  BE  OBSERVED  IN  A  BIOLOGICAL   COURSE  488 
GENERAL  METHOD   IN  BIOLOGICAL   STUDY  .        .        .         .493 

SPECIAL   METHODS 493 

CORRELATION  OF  BOTANY,  ZOOLOGY,  AND    PHYSIOLOGY  494 

PHYSICS 

COMMON-SENSE    NOTIONS    AND    PHYSICAL    PRINCIPLES  495 

Intuitions  and  the  Facts  of  Everyday  Life  as  Starting  Points       .  496 

Some  Intuitive  Notions  Described 498 

The  Question  of  Tyndall's  Boys 500 

ECONOMY   OF   TIME  AND   EFFORT 503 

FUNDAMENTAL  CONCEPTS 504 

SYLLABI 505 

LABORATORY  WORK 505 

THE  PROGRESSIVE  PROGRAM 

CHEMISTRY 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  BASIS 508 

HOW  TO  BEGIN                                 509 


Contents  xxiii 

PAGE 

HOW  TO  USE  THE  TEXTBOOK 512 

THE   CONTENT   OF   CHEMISTRY 513 

Chemical  Laws 515 

Type  Reactions 516 

Practical  Applications 517 

THE    TEACHER 

PERSONALITY 519 

TRAINING 519 

PROFESSIONAL  SPIRIT 521 

CHAPTER   XIII 

MATHEMATICS 

NATURE  AND  USE  OF  THE  SUBJECT 529 

Reasons  for  its  Study 530 

Branches  of  the  Subject  .........  530 

Range  of  Secondary  Mathematics 531 

ALGEBRA 531 

.  General  Nature  of  the  Subject .  531 

Reasons  for  Studying  Algebra 532 

Present  Status  in  the  Curriculum 534 

In  European  Schools  .........  536 

GEOMETRY 536 

Reasons  for  Studying  Geometry 537 

Present  Status  of  the  Teaching  of  Geometry  ....  538 

Reforms  and  Improvements 539 

ALGEBRA  AND  GEOMETRY  IN  THE  GRAMMAR  GRADES  .  541 

College  Entrance  Requirements  in  Mathematics  ....  544 

SPECIAL  VISUAL  AIDS   TO   TEACHING    MATHEMATICS        .  546 

CHAPTER    XIV 

THE    SOCIAL   SCIENCES 

HISTORY 

NATURE   OF  HISTORY 549 

MATERIALS    OF  HISTORY 550 

PROBLEMS    OF  TEACHING   HISTORY 551 

THE    CHOICE    OF    MATERIALS.     ORGANIZATION    OF    THE 

COURSE    OF   STUDY 552 

Growth  of  History  in  College  and  School  Curricula       .         .        .     553 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten 554 


xxiv  Contents 


The  Committee  of  Seven 555 

Recent  Modifications 557 

Modification  of  Course  in  New  Types  of  Schools  ....  558 

European  Courses  of  Study  and  Programs     .....  558 

METHODS   OF   TEACHING 560 

VISUAL  AIDS  TO  TEACHING  HISTORY 564 

CIVICS 

THE  TERM   CIVICS 565 

INTRODUCTION   INTO  THE   SCHOOLS 565 

PRESENT   STATUS 567 

METHODS   OF  TEACHING    CIVICS 569 

ECONOMICS 

ECONOMICS   IN  THE   SCHOOLS 573 

CHAPTER   XV 
FIXE   ARTS   AND    MUSIC 

ART   IN   EDUCATION 578 

Classification  of  the  Arts          .         .         .         .        .        .         .         -578 

Principles  underlying  Art  in  Education 579 

Arts  are  Essentials  in  Education           ......  580 

Expression  precedes  Appreciation         ......  580 

Social  Activities  furnish  the  Starting  Point  .....  581 

Artistic  Expression  natural  to  Children-         .....  581 

Literature  the  most  General  Art  for  School  Purposes      .         .         .  582 

METHODS    OF   TEACHING   ART 582 

The  Two  Methods 583 

The  Academic  Method          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -58.3 

The  Structural  Method 585 

The  Two  Methods  in  the  Schools  .......  587 

DESIGN    AS     THE     SUBJECT     RELATING    FINE    ARTS    TO 

PRACTICAL  ARTS 587 

Industrial  Design     .         .         .         .        .        .        .        .        .         -588 

Design  in  the  Fine  Arts   .........  589 

Relation  of  Design  to  the  Arts  of  Representation  .        .        .        .  591 

Place  of  Design  in  Education 592 

Present  School  Conditions    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  592 

MUSIC   TEACHING   IN   THE   SCHOOLS 594 

Recent  Tendencies  towards  a  Broader  Use  and  Appreciation  of 

Music  in  the  School      .........  505 

Instrumental  Music     .........  595 

596 


Contents  xxv 


Methods  in  School  Music 597 

Interpretation      ..........     598 

Structure     ...........     599 

Key    ............     600 

Interval       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .601 

Rhythm       ...........     602 

Present  Procedure        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .602 

New  Tendencies      ..........     603 

CHAPTER   XVI 

HOUSEHOLD  ARTS 

PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  EARLY   EDUCATION         .         .        .         .608 
BROAD   CONTENT   OF  HOUSEHOLD   ARTS        .         .         .         .609 

The  Purpose  of  the  Household  Arts 610 

SCHOOL  WORK   SHOULD   CONNECT   CLOSELY  WITH   LIFE     611 

CLOTHING  AND   HYGIENE 612 

FOOD   AND  NUTRITION 613 

Technical  Skill  to  be  Gained 614 

Scientific  Knowledge 615 

Waste 615 

HOUSING    CONDITIONS,    HOUSE    PLANNING,    AND    HOME 

KEEPING 616 

Moral  and  Economic  Values  of  Such  Instruction  .         .         .         .617 

EQUIPMENT 618 

Elimination  of  the  Artificial 619 

Value  and  Results  of  Training  in  Housekeeping    .         .         .         .619 

EXHIBITIONS 620 

TEACHERS '  .     621 

THE  HOME   IDEA   MUST  BE   PRESERVED         .         .         .         .623 
VOCATIONAL  ASPECT   OF  HOUSEHOLD   ARTS         .         .         .624 

The  Trade  School 624 

The  Girls'  Technical  High  School 626 

The  Household  Arts  in  the  Academic  High  School        .         .         .629 

HOUSEHOLD  ARTS  IN  SCHOOLS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     632 

Massachusetts          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -632 

New  York 633 

Ohio 634 

Iowa 635 

Indiana     ............     636 

Wisconsin         ...........     636 

Federal  Subsidies 637 


xxvi  Contents 

CHAPTER  XVII 

VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 

PAGE 

SCOPE   OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 641 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 642 

General  Definition 642 

Origin  of  the  Present  Problem 643 

Factors  in  the  Problem 644 

European  Experience 645 

United  States 646 

Evening  Schools  .         .         . 647 

Technical  Schools 648 

Manual  Training        . 648 

Trade  Schools      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  649 

Preparatory  Trade  Schools  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .651 

Part-time  and  Cooperative  Plan   .         .         .         .         .         .         .652 

Apprenticeship  and  Corporation  Schools       .....  654 

Secondary  Technical  Schools         .......  655 

Technical  High  Schools         ........  655 

Legislation  in  the  United  States      .......  656 

MANUAL  TRAINING 658 

Educational  Value.    Underlying  Theory 658 

Content  of  Course 660 

Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Various  National  Systems         .  660 

Industrial  Education  and  Manual  Training 662 

COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION 

ORIGIN  AND    NEED    OF   COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION     .        .  663 

Commercial  Education  in  the  Public  High  School         .        .        .  664 

AGRICULTURAL   EDUCATION 
DEVELOPMENT     OF    THE    INTEREST    IN    AGRICULTURAL 

EDUCATION 671 

AGRICULTURAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE   SCHOOLS         .        .672 

Agricultural  High  Schools 673 

THE  PRESENT   PROBLEM 678 

CHAPTER   XVIII 
HYGIENE   AND   PHYSICAL   EDUCATION 

HYGIENE 685 

PERSONAL  HYGIENE 685 

The  Scope  of  Personal  Hygiene 687 


Contents  xxvii 


TEACHING  OF  HYGIENE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .688 

Instruction  in  Hygiene  in  the  Schools 689 

Scope  of  a  Course  in  Hygiene 690 

Methods  of  Instruction  in  Hygiene 692 

The  Teaching  of  Hygiene  in  the  High  School  .  .  .  .692 

Legal  Requirements 694 

SCHOOL  HYGIENE 694 

Hygiene  of  the  School  Child 695 

Hygiene  of  Instruction 696 

The  Construction  and  Sanitation  of  the  Schoolhouse  .  .  .  696 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION 698 

Early  Conceptions 698 

Modern  Views  ..........  699 

Forms  of  Exercise 700 

Gymnastics  and  Athletics 700 

Educative  Value 701 

In  Schools 703 

Gymnastics  for  Girls 704 

CHAPTER   XIX 
ATHLETICS 

EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF  ATHLETICS 709 

CREATIVE   FORCES  IN  ATHLETICS 711 

The  Contestant's  Incentives 711 

The  Spectator's  Incentives 714 

EVILS   OF  ATHLETICS 716 

CONTROL   OF  ATHLETICS 720 

ATHLETICS  IN   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS 724 

Stages  of  Development    .........  724 

Organized  Athletics 725 

Rules  of  Eligibility 725 

Safeguards       .        .         .         .         .         .         .        .        .         .         .726 

Events 727 

Summary  of  Values 727 

Summary  of  Effects  upon  the  School 727 

Athletic  Courtesy 728 

CHAPTER   XX 
SOCIAL   ASPECTS   OF   HIGH    SCHOOL   EDUCATION 

THE   SOCIAL  VIEWPOINT 732 

INTERNAL  VIEWPOINT 733 

SOCIALIZED   METHODS 735 


xxviii  Contents 

PAGE 

SOCIAL  ELEMENT  IN   ORGANIZATION 736 

HIGH   SCHOOL   EXTENSION 738 

SUPPLEMENTARY  ACTIVITIES  DEMANDED   BY   SOCIETY    .  739 

CONTENT   OF  INSTRUCTION 734 

CHAPTER   XXI 
THE   REORGANIZATION  OF   SECONDARY   EDUCATION 

THE  FORCES   PRODUCING  THE    PRESENT    REORGANIZA- 
TION  IN   SOCIETY 745 

THE     REORGANIZATION     ALREADY     ACCOMPLISHED     IN 

SECONDARY   EDUCATION 746 

THE  REORGANIZATION  TO   BE  ACCOMPLISHED  .        .        .746 

UNIFORMITY  IN  EXISTING  AIMS  AND  PRACTICES  .  .  747 
RECENT  SPECIALIZATION  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS  .  .  .749 
FUNDAMENTAL  NEED  FOR  FURTHER  ADVANCE  IN  THE 

REORGANIZATION   OF  AIMS 750 

REORGANIZATION  IN   METHODS   OF    TEACHING  AND    OF 

PROCEDURE 753 

EXISTING     NEED     FOR    REORGANIZATION     CAN    BE    UN- 
DERSTOOD    ONLY     THROUGH     A    STUDY    OF     THE 
EVOLUTION   OF   EXISTING   PRACTICES  .         .         .         .755 
CHARACTER   OF  PROSPECTIVE  REORGANIZATION        .        .  756 
AGENCIES    OR    INSTITUTIONS    CONTRIBUTING    TO    EDU- 
CATION         756 

THE   SCHOOL  AS  THE    SPECIAL  AGENCY  OF  EDUCATION  758 
CLASSIFICATION     OF    THE    AIMS    AND     PROCESSES     OF 
EDUCATION    AS     DETERMINING    ITS    REORGANIZA- 
TION   759 

Physical  Education 760 

Vocational  Education       .........  761 

Social  Education 762 

Cultural  Education 764 

Culture  Primarily  Based  on  Contemporary  Life    ....  766 

Personal  Culture  and  Achievement        ......  767 

REORGANIZATION    OF    SECONDARY    EDUCATION    NECES- 
SITATED  BY   FOREGOING   ANALYSIS        .         .         .         .767 

In  Physical  Education 768 

In  Vocational  Education  .........  760 

In  Social  Education         .         .        .         .        .        .        .        .        -770 

In  Cultural  Education 770 

Effect  on  the  Traditional  Subjects 772 

Administrative  Changes  Necessitated 773 

THE  FINAL  WORD    IS   THIS  . 


PRINCIPLES 

OF 

SECONDARY   EDUCATION 


PRINCIPLES    OF   SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION:   SCOPE  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 

FUNDAMENTAL  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SECONDARY 
SCHOOL.  —  The  secondary  school  has  been  the  bearer  of 
the  dominant  educational  traditions  from  the  time  of  the 
Renaissance  to  the  present.  Until  very  recent  times  revo- 
lutionary ideas  and  new  methods  in  education  have  been 
worked  out  in  the  secondary  schools.  Herbart  formulated 
and  tested  all  his  educational  ideas  in  that  phase  of  education 
which  we  would  call  secondary.  Froebel  early  taught  in 
a  secondary  school  and  later  developed  an  experimental  one; 
from  this  experience  he  formulated  his  theories  of  education 
a  dozen  years  before  he  established  the  first  kindergarten. 
Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  secondary 
school  was  the  dominant  educational  institution  in  most 
countries,  more  influential  in  contributing  ideas  and  shaping 
policies  than  schools  either  preliminary  or  subsequent  to  it. 
Even  now  in  most  countries  except  the  United  States  the 
secondary  school  is  the  most  important  and  influential  portion 
of  the  educational  system. 

The  secondary  school  has  been  established  longer,  in  its 
procedure,  organization,  curriculum,  and  method,  than  either 
elementary  school  or  university.  It  has  been  the  most  stable 
as  well  as  most  enduring  part  of  our  educational  system.- 

NO  AGREEMENT  AS  TO  SCOPE  OR  MEANING  OF 
SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  —  Notwithstanding  these  facts 
there  is  now  no  consensus  of  opinion  as  to  the  scope  or  meaning 

B  I 


2  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  secondary  education.  It  has  a  local  significance  and  a 
peculiar  purpose  in  each  country.  In  our  own  country  the 
views  con:;rning  secondary  education  as  to  its  purpose, 
scope,  curriculum,  method,  or  organization  are  of  the  most 
diverse  character,  even  among  those  who  are  specialists  in 
this  very  field. 

Reasons  for  this  Diversity.  —  The  reasons  for  this 
unsettled  condition  lie  in  the  nature  of  the  case.  Second- 
ary education  has  meant  different  things  in  different  ages  and 
to  different  peoples  because  of  the  divergences  in  social  life 
and  structure.  As  the  socially  determining  phase  of  education, 
it  has  conformed  to  the  varying  needs  of  each  stage  of  social 
development  and  of  each  type  of  society.  The  indefiniteness 
of  present  views  as  to  the  purpose  and  the  scope  is  due  to  the 
very  great  complexity  of  modern  society  and  the  greatly 
multiplied  needs  of  modern  life ;  to  the  enhanced  responsi- 
bility of  the  modern  school ;  to  the  assumption  by  the  ele- 
mentary school  of  the  place  of  fundamental  and  initial  im- 
portance in  the  modern  educational  scheme ;  and  to  the  fact 
that  in  America  secondary  education  has  become  a  super- 
posed stage,  not  an  alternative  phase  of  education. 

By  passing  in  brief  review  the  various  conceptions  of  second- 
ary education  as  these  have  been  shaped  by  the  varying  needs 
of  different  periods  and  peoples,  an  understanding  of  the 
present  situation  may  be  reached.  For  the  present  is  heir  not 
only  to  the  achievements  of  all  the  ages  but  to  many  of  their 
problems.  The  social  situation  which  secondary  education 
confronts  to-day  and  which  the  secondary  school  attempts  to 
meet  is  a  complex  of  these  conditions  of  the  past ;  so  the  mean- 
ing and  scope  of  secondary  education  is  a  complex  of  these 
various  conceptions  and  procedures  of  the  past. 

The  present  state  of  affairs  in  secondary  education  is  con- 
fusing because  the  several  problems  of  the  various  stages  of 
the  past  are  now  bound  up  in  one  situation.  No  one  condition 
is  determining ;  no  statement  of  the  problem  of  scope  and 


Introduction:    Scope  of  Secondary  Education       3 

purpose  in  terms  of  a  single  factor  or  force  or  situation  or  aim 
is  sufficient.  A  variety  of  each  of  these  is  involved. 

The  following  chapter  will  work  out  in  greater  detail  these 
typical  forms  of  secondary  education. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  DETERMINED  BY  THE 
NATURE  OF  THE  PROCESS :  TRAINING  vs.  INSTRUC- 
TION. -The  earliest  distinction  between  primary  and  second- 
ary stages  of  education  to  be  worked  out  was  that  based  upon 
the  nature  of  the  process.  When  education  became  a  con- 
scious social  process,  its  earliest  stages  were  seen  to  consist 
in  that  training  in  habit  formation  which  produced  the  char- 
acter demanded  by  the  adult  generation.  These  desired 
social  and  moral  qualities  revealed  themselves  chiefly  in  types 
of  conduct  and  had  little  to  do  with  attitudes  of  mind.  But 
it  was  soon  seen  that  a  different  sort  of  education  was  necessary 
for  the  dominant  class  of  society,  characterized  by  greater 
intellectual  alertness  and  a  tendency  to  moral  innovations. 
This  inquiring  class  needed  an  education  which  would  make 
clear  the  foundations  of  the  habits  formed,  and  which  would 
even  allow  a  modification  of  conduct  based  upon  an  investi- 
gation and  consideration  of  such  fundamental  conditions. 
In  other  words,  this  new  type  of  education  became  intellectual 
instead  of  moral ;  its  central  process  was  that  of  instruction 
as  contrasted  with  training  or  habit-formation.  Incidentally 
it  became  restricted  to  a  superior  class,  while  the  education 
of  character-formation  remained  general  in  its  scope.  This 
was  the  distinction  worked  out  by  the  Greeks,  by  whom  it  was 
first  attained. 

This  differentiation  being  accepted,  secondary  education 
was  seen  to  be  a  superior  process,  elaborated  for,  and  capable 
of  assimilation  only  by,  a  superior  class  and  resulting  in 
a  superior  social  product.  In  its  highest  form  it  also  assumed 
a  position  of  distinct  superiority  in  the.  educational  scheme 
and,  with  some  further  historical  elaboration,  became  the 
"  liberal  education  "  of  many  subsequent  generations. 


4  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  BASED  UPON  SUBJECT 
MATTER. —-The  differentiation  of  secondary  education  on 
the  basis  of  the  method  used,  involved  also  the  choice  of  subject 
matter.  In  its  origin,  however,  this  importance  of  subject 
matter  seemed  to  be  of  derivative,  not  of  initial,  value.  With 
the  elaboration  of  processes  of  instruction,  as  opposed  to 
processes  of  training,  the  reflective  consideration  of  human 
experience  became  formulated.  These  formulations  of  ex- 
perience were  among  the  many  achievements  of  the  Greeks. 
Thus  grammar  was  developed  as  a  conscious  consideration 
of  human  speech  as  a  process  of  expressing  experience ; 
rhetoric  as  conscious  consideration  of  speech  as  a  form  of  social 
control ;  logic  as  a  conscious  consideration  of  human  thought 
as  an  instrument  for  the  control  of  human  experiences  in 
connection  with  the  social  or  the  physical  or  the  spiritual 
environment. 

The  profound  emphasis  upon  the  character  of  subject  matter 
as  the  determining  factor  in  secondary  education  was  given 
in  the  Renaissance  period.  This  emphasis  resulted  from  the 
realization  that  the  most  valuable  account  of  human  experience 
and  activities  was  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  past  ages, 
expressed  in  tongues  which  then  had  become  foreign.  Second- 
ary education  then  came  to  be  a  matter  of  the  mastery  of  these 
foreign  languages  and  literatures.  This  condition  continued 
to  involve  the  difference  in  method.  But  the  delimiting  factors 
of  secondary  education  became  much  broader  than  method ; 
for  the  general  view  of  method  now  came  to  be  not  that  of  in- 
struction as  opposed  to  training,  but  the  method  of  studying 
and  teaching  foreign  languages  and  literatures  — •  or  to  be  more 
specific,  methods  of  studying  Latin  and  Greek.  In  this  stage 
secondary  education  remained  for  several  centuries.  This 
distinction  based  on  subject  matter,  or  on  subject  matter  and 
appropriate  method,  combined,  remains  the  most  important 
factor  in  determining  the  scope  and  purpose  of  secondary 
education.  In  more  recent  periods  mathematics  and  science 


Introduction:   Scope  of  Secondary  Education       5 

either  came  to  share  with  the  classics  this  place  as  distinctive 
subject  matter  or,  with  modern  languages  and  literature, 
replaced  them  altogether. 

While  subject  matter  and  method  have  thus  been  most 
influential,  at  least  in  determining  the  scope  of  secondary 
education,  its  purpose  with  given  peoples  or  in  given  periods 
has  often  been  determined  by  other  considerations.  And  at 
present  the  distinction  furnished  by  subject  matter  and  method 
is  conspicuously  inadequate,  even  to  determine  scope. 

DISTINCTION  BASED  UPON  PROFESSIONAL  PREP- 
ARATION. —  The  separation  of  the  secondary  from  the 
lower  stage  in  education  was  rendered  saner  as  well  as  more 
distinct  by  the  condition  which  early  developed,  giving  a 
peculiar  professional  value  to  these  specially  selected  methods 
and  subjects  of  study.  Even  among  the  Greeks  those  who 
applied  themselves  to  the  mastery  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and 
logic  soon  formed  a  profession.  This  group  was'made  a  social 
class,  not  simply  because  its  members  possessed  certain  special 
knowledge,  but  because  they  possessed  valued  powers  developed 
by  use  of  the  new  methods.  Such  soon  became  the  ruling 
classes  in  society ;  the  rhetorician,  the  philosopher,  or  the 
politician,  replaced  the  soldier  and  those  trained  by  the  old 
methods  as  the  dominant  factors  in  society. 

Among  the  Romans,  and  especially  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
secondary  education  was  elaborated  as  a  conscious  social 
process  into  this  preparation  for  the  professions  dominant  in 
society.  To  produce  the  orator  and  lawyer  became  the  chief 
object  of  the  Roman  grammar  and  rhetorical  schools.  With 
the  medieval  church  in  the  ascendency,  the  higher  clergy 
came  to  perform  practically  all  the  professional  services  for 
society.  The  Latin  grammar  school  came  to  be  the  only 
avenue  for  admission  to  these  higher  branches  of  the  clergy. 
While  subject  matter  and  method  were  still  characteristics, 
the  predominant  feature  of  secondary  education  was  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  sole  means  of  preparation  for  those  activities 


6  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

which  directed  social  forces  and  the  sole  entrance  to  those 
professions. 

With  the  development  of  the  university  the  secondary  school 
ceased  to  be  a  direct  preparation  for  the  professions  and  became 
preparatory  to  the  training  for  these  professions  now  given  by 
the  higher  schools.  And  such  it  has  remained.  Continuing 
this  peculiar  professional  privilege,  though  not  fitting  directly 
for  the  professions,  these  schools  have  become  more  remote 
from  the  immediate  needs  of  society  and  more  abstract  in 
their  view  of  subject  matter  and  method. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  AS  A  CLASS  DISTINC- 
TION. —  As  secondary  education  changed  from  a  professional 
training  to  a  preparatory  stage  to  such  training,  it  developed 
another  aspect.  In  losing  its  distinct  professional  cast  it 
made  a  much  broader  appeal  and  became  a  badge  of  class 
distinction.  This  function  of  secondary  education  became 
prominent  in  the  Renaissance  and  post-Renaissance  period. 
It  remains  to-day  a  powerful  factor  in  determining  the  char- 
acter and  scope  of  secondary  education.  Among  certain 
classes  of  people  rather  than  at  any  period  of  history,  the  sig- 
nificance of  secondary  education  as  a  class  distinction  is 
characteristic. 

As  the  secondary  schools,  at  least  the  great  Public  Schools 
of  England,  lost  their  distinct  function  of  preparing  poor  boys 
for  the  university  and  thus  for  the  clergy,  they  became  popular 
as  training  centers  for  the  sons  of  the  gentry.  Intellectual 
work  became  a  subordinate  part  of  the  training ;  subject 
matter  and  method  became  stereotyped,  formal,  traditional. 
It  was  the  social  stamp  given  by  the  peculiar  conditions  of 
a  highly  artificial  life  that  was  prized. 

This  conception  of  secondary  education  was  most  influential 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  though  it 
persisted  well  into  the  nineteenth  as  a  view  accepted  not  only 
socially  but  also  educationally.  In  furnishing  the  personal 
motive  it  undoubtedly  is  widely  operative  to-day,  though  it  is 


Introduction:    Scope  of  Secondary  Kducation       7 

hardly  accepted  as  a  social  justification  or  by  any  group  of 
professional  educators. 

During  the  late  seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth  century 
this  view  affected  elementary  and  higher  education  as  well 
as  secondary.  For  large  sections  of  people,  education  of  any 
type  was  the  mark  of  the  leisure  class.  Hence,  as  is  the  case 
with  dress  or  amusement  or  employment  or  any  form  of 
distinction  of  the  leisure  class,  the  more  remote  from  practical 
use  it  was  and  the  more  completely  it  unfitted  the  possessor 
for  practical  activities,  the  more  highly  was  it  valued.  Un- 
fortunately the  early  development  of  secondary  education 
for  girls  was  entirely  on  this  basis,  and  this  view  has  largely 
persisted.  For  a  time  any  literary  education  outside  of  a  pro- 
fessional class  was  regarded  as  such  a  class  distinction. 

With  the  entrance  of  women  in  any  numbers  to  the  secondary 
field,  education  as  a  class  adornment  lost  much  of  its  literary 
cast,  and  incorporated  a  great  variety  of  activities  char- 
acteristic of  the  leisure  classes  of  those  periods. 

In  European  centers  the  social  status  of  the  family  is  still 
quite  clearly  indicated  by  the  type  of  secondary  school  to 
which  the  children  are  sent,  and  it  is  frequently  true  that 
secondary  education  of  a  given  type  is  sought  merely  for 
social  reasons.  While  the  American  high  school  is  so  broad 
and  indefinite  in  its  scope  that  it  fails  to  possess  much  of  this 
peculiar  social  significance,  yet  it  is  true,  partly  because  of  its 
very  lack  of  definite  purpose,  that  many  attend  because  it  is 
an  index  of  social  class. 

This  factor  of  class  significance  is  one  of  the  causes  for  the 
difficulty  of  developing  in  the  United  States  a  more  strictly 
vocational  type  of  secondary  schools  similar  to  those  in 
European  countries. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SOCIAL 
SELECTION.  —  Underneath  all  of  the  distinctions  of  the 
secondary  stage  of  education  previously  discussed,  lies  one 
possessing  the  greatest  significance  and  one  operative  over 


8  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  longest  period.  This  is  the  view  of  secondary  education 
as  a  means  of  selecting  those  most  able  and  fit  for  social 
leadership  of  any  type.  This  characteristic  is  involved  in  one 
of  the  distinctions  already  stated.  It  is  really  one  way  of 
stating  that  education  is  a  preparation  for  professional  life. 
But  it  is  much  broader  than  this  professional  conception,  and 
works  independent  of  it.  It  is  probable  that  neither  social 
nor  educational  leaders  were  conscious  of  this  function  until 
education  had  broadened  beyond  professional  training.  This 
greater  breadth  came  definitely  during  the  Renaissance- 
Reformation  period.  It  was  expressed  by  our  Puritan  fore- 
fathers in  the  phrase  —  "  that  learning  might  not  be  buried  in 
the  grave  of  our  fathers  in  church  and  in  commonwealth." 

To  those  who  perpetuated  the  old  Latin  grammar  school 
though  conscious  of  its  narrow  conception  of  education,  the 
institution  was  justified  by  its  selective  function.  When  the 
democratic  spirit  was  increasing  in  the  period  previous  to  the 
nineteenth  century,  it  was  this  function  of  the  school  that  was 
deemed  of  greatest  significance.  This  selective  system  worked 
somewhat  ruthlessly,  but  nevertheless  directly  and  efficiently, 
to  its  end.  The  Jesuit  system  avowedly  rejected  those  of 
mediocre  capacity  and  devoted  its  energies  to  those  of  superior 
abilities.  Most  of  the  Protestant  systems  more  or  less  un- 
consciously and  automatically  did  the  same  thing.  Even  in 
those  countries  where  the  autocratic  spirit  was  comparatively 
wanting,  as  in  Scotland,  the  entire  attention  of  the  secondary 
school  was  directed  to  "  the  lad  o'  parts." 

The  democratic  criticism  of  the  secondary  school  of  this 
type  is  aimed  not  so  much  at  its  purpose  of  selecting  only  the 
fittest,  but  at  its  very  narrow  conception  of  abilities.  The 
type  of  mind  that  responded  to  this  peculiar  discipline,  rigid 
and  thorough,  was  tested  in  a  very  narrow  range.  It  still 
remains  the  accepted  belief,  both  socially  and  educationally, 
in  most  of  the  European  countries,  that  the  secondary  edu- 
cational system  is  designed  to  select,  by  elimination  or  by 


Introduction:   Scope  of  Secondary  Education      9 

segregation,  the  intellectually  ablest  of  the  younger  generation 
and  to  send  them  on,  if  not  to  prepare  them  directly  for  leader- 
ship in  the  various  institutions  of  society. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  obviously  true  that  the  American 
schools  in  emphasizing  the  democratic  purpose  have  minimized 
this  selective  function  of  the  secondary  school.  The  tendency 
in  our  own  schools  is  to  devote  more  attention  to  the  sub- 
normal or  to  the  mediocre  than  to  the  supernormal.  It  would 
be  entirely  possible  to  preserve  both  the  democratic  and  the 
selective  function  of  the  secondary  school  if  the  false  democ- 
racy which  demands  uniform  treatment  for  all  were  replaced 
by  the  practice  of  differentiating  students  according  to  their 
interests,  subject  matter  according  to  its  social  significance 
for  the  student  taking  it,  and  methods  according  to  the  in- 
dividual abilities  of  the  students. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  BASED  ON  PHYSIOLOGI- 
CAL AND  PSYCHOLOGICAL  AGE.  —  With  the  growth  of 
modern  individualism  and  of  the  natural  sciences,  there  came 
into  secondary  education  an  entirely  new  consideration.  It  is 
now  known  that  during  the  adolescent  period  the  child  undergoes 
such  a  radical  change,  physically  and  psychically,  that  education 
can  find  in  these  changes  the  sufficient  basis  for  a  differentia- 
tion between  the  earlier  and  the  secondary  stages  of  education. 

To  Rousseau  belongs  the  credit  of  first  definitely  emphasizing 
this  fact.  The  European  schools,  based  upon  other  traditions, 
hardly  take  these  facts  into  consideration  —  at  least  as  a  basis 
for  the  differentiation  of  elementary  and  secondary  education. 
The  secondary  education  period  begins  in  practically  all 
European  countries  at  about  the  ninth  year  of  the  pupil's 
age ;  that  is,  some  four  or  six  years  before  the  American  child 
enters  upon  this  stage  of  education,  and  some  years  before 
adolescence. 

Other  reasons  were  more  influential  in  setting  the  age  limits 
of  the  American  secondary  school,  but  the  general  recognition 
of  the  peculiar  interests,  abilities,  and  characteristics  of  the 


io  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

adolescent  age  has  had  much  to  do  with  determining  these 
limits.  While  the  democratic  feature  of  elementary  education 
is  no  doubt  the  determining  factor  in  fixing  the  beginning  of 
the  secondary  school  period  at  about  the  fourteenth  year, 
the  recognition  of  the  importance  of  the  adolescent  period  has 
grown  in  weight  throughout  the  history  of  the  American  high 
school.  The  old  academies  and  the  still  older  colonial  Latin 
grammar  schools  took  the  youth  much  earlier  than  does  the 
present  high  school. 

That  the  influence  of  the  adolescent  factor  has  been  stronger 
than  most  others  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  foreign  languages, 
science,  and  higher  mathematics  have  been  made  to  conform 
to  this  distinction,  when  experience,  the  conditions  in  other 
countries,  and  the  interests  of  the  child  would  dictate  an  earlier 
approach. 

The  seventh  chapter  of  this  volume  gives  an  elaborate 
summary  of  the  physical  and  psychical  considerations  which 
enter  into  the  adolescent  period  and  which  must  receive 
attention  in  determining  the  scope  and  character  of  secondary 
school  work.  Such  considerations  are  becoming  more  and 
more  influential  and  should  be  studied  as  a  prominent,  though 
not  the  sole,  factor  in  determining  problems  of  secondary 
education. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  DETERMINED  BY  THE 
STUDENT'S  INTERESTS  AND  ABILITIES.  — A  factor  of 
increasing  importance  in  determining  the  scope  and  purpose  of 
secondary  education  is  that  embodied  in  the  interests  and 
abilities  of  the  students.  In  considering  its  selective  function 
as  the  determining  element  in  secondary  education,  it  was  noted 
that  the  interests  and  abilities  of  only  a  very  limited  class  of 
students  were  considered.  But  as  a  result  of  the  increased 
attention  given  to  the  physical  and  psychical  characteristics  of 
adolescence  as  well  as  of  the  growing  diversification  in  the  needs 
of  society,  a  wider  range  of  student  interests  and  abilities  was 
provided  for.  This  was  the  characteristic  contribution  of  the 


Introduction:   Scope  of  Secondary  Education     n 

academies.  The  courtly  academies  of  the  continent,  the  non- 
conformist academies  of  England,  the  early  American  acad- 
emies, all  catered  to  the  interests  of  the  students.  So 
marked  a  feature  did  this  become,  especially  in  the  American 
academies,  that  it  resulted  in  what  might  be  termed  "  local 
option  "  or  even  "  personal  option  "  in  education.  "  If  you 
do  not  see  what  you  want  in  the  curriculum,  ask  for  it,"  was 
practically  the  working  basis  of  many  of  these  institutions. 
Such  freedom  and  absence  of  standard  could  but  be  a  pass- 
ing phase,  even  though  it  emphasized  a  much-needed  prin- 
ciple of  operation. 

A  more  stable  and  socially  serviceable  form  of  response  to 
this  same  demand  was  made  in  the  continental  countries  of 
Europe,  especially  among  the  Teutons,  by  the  development  of 
divergent  types  of  secondary  schools.  Thus  in  time  the  Ger- 
man states  added  to  the  gymnasium,  the  pro-gymnasium,  the 
real-gymnasium,  the  obcr-real  schule,  the  fortbildung  schule, 
and  the  several  forms  of  the  technical  and  the  commercial 
schools.  Scarcely  an  interest  or  an  ability  of  the  adolescent 
fails  to  find  an  opportunity  for  expression  and  training  in 
this  diversified  system. 

The  American  high  schools  attempt  through  a  variety  of 
alternative  courses  to  meet  the  same  need.  These  courses, 
however,  are  of  such  general  nature  that  the  schools  do  not 
function  so  efficiently  as  do  the  continental  ones. 

THE  PRESENT  IS  A  COMBINATION  OF  ALL  THESE 
FACTORS.  —  At  the  present  time  all  of  these  factors  enter  into 
a  determination  of  the  scope  and  purpose  of  secondary  educa- 
tion. Hence  arise  the  complexity  of  the  problem,  the  lack  of 
agreement  among  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  secondary  edu- 
cation, the  absence  of  a  common  procedure  or  organization. 
Added  to  this  fact  is  the  other  consideration  that  society  is 
much  more  complex,  and  the  individual  has  much  greater 
liberty  of  choice  and  opportunity,  than  in  any  past  stage. 
Consequently  it  is  impossible  to  state  in  simple  terms  the 


12  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

problem  of  secondary  education  or  to  delimit  with  any  great 
precision  its  scope  and  purpose.  These  are,  or  may  be,  as 
varied  as  the  needs  of  society  and  the  interests  and  abilities 
of  the  students.  Any  theoretical  formulation  of  principles 
and  any  practical  organization  of  procedure  must  take  account 
of  all  these  factors. 

Some  consideration  must  be  given  to  the  fundamental 
difference  in  methods  between  the  elementary  and  the  higher 
stages  of  education.  While  all  school  work  has  become 
primarily  a  matter  of  instruction,  yet  the  element  of  rational 
interpretation  of  experience  as  a  basis  for  future  conduct 
must  be  made  the  guiding  principle  of  method  in  the  secondary 
stage.  So  to  formulate  the  work  of  the  secondary  school  that 
such  rationalized  intelligence  will  result  is  now  recognized  as 
one  of  the  chief  tasks  of  the  educator.  The  stress  placed  upon 
method  in  the  chapters  on  the  natural  and  the  social  sciences 
as  well  as  in  the  concluding  chapter  of  this  volume  is  in  recogni- 
tion of  this  fact. 

The  differentiation  of  subject  matter  is  and  must  continue 
to  be  one  of  the  determining  factors  in  secondary  education. 
But  the  practical  demands  that  foreign  languages,  the  higher 
phases  of  mathematics  for  some  children,  and  the  natural 
sciences  taught  by  inductive  methods  for  all  children,  should 
be  begun  much  earlier,  will  probably  bring  in  the  United 
States  a  gradual  lowering  of  the  age  of  entrance  to  the  second- 
ary school. 

In  nearly  all  countries  the  completion  of  a  secondary  school 
course  is  the  prerequisite  for  admission  into  most  professions 
or  professional  schools.  The  present  tendencies  are  all  in  the 
direction  of  making  this  requirement  more  general.  No  doubt 
in  time  such  a  requirement  will  become  universal  in  the  United 
States  as  it  has  in  the  Teutonic  countries  of  Europe.  Any 
consideration  or  any  organization  of  secondary  education  must 
include  this  as  a  definite  factor. 

The  secondary  stage  of  education  continues  to  be  a  form  of 


Introduction:    Scope  of  Secondary  Education     13 

class  distinction.  And  the  conservation  of  social  forces  may 
well  continue  this  influence.  However,  it  should  not  be  merely 
the  badge  of  a  leisure  class.  It  should  rather  become,  through 
a  greater  precision  in  the  social  functioning  of  the  secondary 
school  system,  an  index  of  efficiency  in  the  various  classes  and 
groups  in  society. 

In  European  countries  the  secondary  school  continues  to 
function  as  an  instrument  of  social  selection,  and  the  tendency 
in  our  own  country  is  in  that  direction.  Social  selection  may 
work,  however,  not  only  by  elimination,  but  by  segregation. 
It  is  with  difficulty  that  a  democracy  realizes  the  fact  that 
social  democracy  and  social  stability  depend  upon  specializa- 
tion and  upon  efficient  development  of  individual  ability.  The 
guiding  principle  cannot  be  to  treat  all  students  alike,  but 
to  develop  as  many  specialized  lines  of  training  as  the  com- 
munity can  support.  There  is  now  in  our  country  greater 
need  than  ever  for  the  training  of  leaders  and  for  an  instru- 
ment of  social  selection.  The  haphazard  methods  of  the  past 
are  proving  too  wasteful  to  be  long  continued.  National  if 
not  individual  competition  will  force  such  specialization  and 
definite  training  upon  us.  The  intelligence  which  demands 
the  best  training  of  the  efficient  must  be  joined  to  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment  for  the  education  of  the  subnormal  if  our 
country  is  to  hold  its  own  as  the  advantages  due  to  our  un- 
limited natural  resources  gradually  disappear.  The  selection 
and  the  training  of  the  socially  efficient  or  the  supernormal 
is  probably  the  factor  that  needs  most  stressing  in  the  present 
state  of  our  secondary  education. 

The  psychical  and  physical  factors  influential  in  secondary 
education  have  never  before  received  so  much  consideration 
as  is  now  being  given  to  them.  The  careful  continuous  study 
of  these  factors  cannot  but  throw  light  upon  the  whole  problem, 
despite  the  number  and  the  importance  of  the  other  factors. 

Similarly,  students'  interests  and  abilities  are  receiving  un- 
precedented attention.  And  this  must  be  continued.  Such 


14  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

consideration  bids  fair  to  bring  about  a  much  greater  diver- 
sification in  our  secondary  education  than  we  have  ever  had. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  AS  A  PREPARATION  FOR 
SOCIAL  SERVICE  AND  A  TRAINING  IN  EFFICIENCY.  - 

All  the  factors  of  the  past  are  now  present  and  operative. 
This  fact  in  itself  would  seem  to  be  sufficient  to  explain  the 
complexity  and  the  importance  of  the  present  problem  in 
secondary  education.  But  to  these  is  added  one  other,  an 
entirely  new  one  and  a  dominating  one. 

This  fact  is  that  there  is  a  dawning  perception  that  secondary 
education  must  become  universal  as  elementary  education  has 
now  become.  This  situation  is  not  clearly  recognized,  but  its 
existence  explains  much  of  the  uncertainty  and  much  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  present. 

In  all  of  the  highly  developed  modern  societies  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  existing  form  of  elementary  education  is  being 
recognized.  In  addition  a  special  vocational  training  is  needed 
for  the  rank  and  file  of  society  workers ;  and  the  selected 
leaders  in  professional  or  vocational  activities  of  a  higher  social 
and  intellectual  status  should  have  a  broader  general  education 
as  a  basis  for  their  subsequent  vocational  training. 

Hence  in  European  countries  extended  systems  of  diver- 
sified secondary  schools  have  developed,  including  not  only 
the  varied  forms  of  schools  preparatory  to  the  professions  and 
to  scientific  employments,  but  a  like  variety  of  technical  vo- 
cational schools  for  those  engaged  in  common  industry  of  any 
form.  Several  German  states  and  other  Teutonic  countries 
make  it  incumbent  on  practically  every  individual  entering 
into  industry  or  commerce  to  take  such  training.  That  for 
the  higher  professional  and  scientific  employments  has  long 
been  obligatory. 

In  English-speaking  countries,  more  jealous  of  individual 
initiative  and  of  freedom  from  regulation,  the  development 
has  been  much  more  tardy.  In  our  own  country  the  pressure 
of  complex  social  conditions  has  also  been  much  less.  Con- 


Introduction:    Scope  of  Secondary  Education     15 

sequently  the  development  of  a  variety  of  vocational  continu- 
ation schools  of  secondary  character  has  but  just  begun.  The 
demand  for  the  universality  of  secondary  education  is  indicated 
by  the  growing  recognition  of  the  necessity  for  such  schools 
throughout  our  own  country,  as  well  as  by  the  greatly  increased 
attendance  upon  our  present  secondary  schools  and  by  the 
variety  of  attempts  to  diversify  the  course  of  study  in  the 
traditional  schools.  If  such  diversification  were  adequately 
provided  for,  both  through  varied  courses  and  through  new 
types  of  schools  less  bound  to  traditional  methods,  the  attend- 
ance upon  secondary  schools  would  become  vastly  greater. 

But  our  own  country  will  realize  in  time,  as  the  countries 
of  continental  Europe  have  already  done,  that  this  matter 
cannot  be  left  to  individual  interest  and  choice.  The  in- 
terests of  society  demand  such  advanced  and  more  specialized 
training  for  all  its  members.  Granting  that  there  are  still 
great  numbers  who  are  free  from  the  necessity  of  a  definite 
vocational  training,  an  advanced  training  for  the  benefit  of 
those  possessing  leisure  is  just  as  essential,  if  they  are  to  be 
socially  efficient. 

For  women,  whether  in  vocation,  or  responsible  for  the  home, 
or  belonging  to  a  leisure  class,  the  same  need  is  becoming  evi- 
dent. And  no  doubt  the  educational  aspect  of  the  present 
"  woman's  movement  "  will  become  more  and  more  distinct 
as  experience  adds  its  influence  to  a  priori  arguments. 

The  concluding  chapter  of  this  volume  presents  this  view 
of  the  universalization  of  secondary  education,  not  only  in  its 
opportunities  but  in  its  realization,  in  the  form  of  an  argument 
in  terms  of  social  efficiency  and  service.  In  time  this  argument 
of  expediency  will  become  one  of  necessity,  as  society  in  America 
becomes  subject  to  somewhat  more  of  the  economic  pressure 
that  exists  in  other  countries,  and  as  political,  economic,  and 
social  problems  take  a  more  definite  and  concrete  form  than 
they  now  have. 


CHAPTER  II 
HISTORIC   SKETCH  OF   SECONDARY  EDUCATION 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  DISTINCTION  BETWEEN  ELE- 
MENTARY AND  SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  —  The  dis- 
tinction between  secondary  and  elementary  education  first 
arose  with  the  Greeks.  On  the  practical  side  this  distinction 
grew  out  of  the  transition  from  the  simple  life  of  the  old  Greeks 
to  the  complex  conditions  of  later  Greek  society.  Increase 
of  wealth,  of  leisure,  of  luxuries,  and  of  democratic  political 
power  and  the  decline  of  military  interests  characterized  the 
latter  and  called  for  a  new  education.  On  the  theoretical 
side  the  distinction  grew  out  of  the  reflective  consideration 
by  the  philosophers  of  educational  processes.  They  recognized 
the  difference  between  the  simple  habit-formation  in  the  home 
life  of  their  early  generations  and  the  artificial  processes  of 
instruction  necessary  for  skilled,  and  specialized  participation 
in  a  highly  developed  society. 

Origin  of  the  Practical  Distinction.  —  Old  Greek  education, 
like  all  other  forms  of  education  in  early  stages  of  historic 
growth  and  in  simple  social  life,  was  a  training  in  habits  of 
conduct.  The  traits  of  character  which  the  Greeks  valued  in 
an  individual  were  courage,  temperance,  reverence,  and  good 
practical  judgment.  These  traits  when  developed  in  an  in- 
dividual produced  in  him  that  marked  personality  which  was 
valued  by  the  Greek.  They  gave  to  the  individual  possessing 
them  a  social  value  which  entitled  him  to  become  a  member  of 
the  group.  In  a  simple  society  where  agricultural  or  pastoral 
pursuits  were  the  chief  occupation  of  private  life  and  military 
activities  the  chief  public  duties,  and  where  slaves  performed 
most  menial  work,  little  differentiation  of  social  classes  would 

16 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        17 

exist.  Without  any  great  distinction  of  social  classes  or  of 
economic  and  social  activities,  little  differentiation  in  education 
could  take  place.  So  long  as  education  was  conceived  in  terms 
of  the  virtues  of  conduct,  the  processes  of  education  were  largely 
those  of  a  "  doing  "  as  opposed  to  those  of  a  reflective  kind. 
The  simple  means  which  the  early  Greek  used  to  secure  these 
several  results  in  habit-formation  were  music  and  gymnastics. 
It  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  people  commonly  held  to  be  the 
most  cultured  and  intellectual  of  all  peoples  had  until  late  in 
their  history  little  if  any  of  that  linguistic  or  literary  training 
which  in  all  subsequent  schemes  has  been  made  the  basis  of 
all  cultural  education.  The  culture  elements  which  in  the 
Greek  scheme  were  the  products  have  been  made  the  means 
in  all  subsequent  schemes. 

Plato  says  of  this  stage,  "  Education  has  two  branches : 
one  of  gymnastics,  which  is  concerned  with  the  body,  and  the 
other  of  music,  which  is  designed  for  the  improvement  of  the 
soul."  Gymnastics  he  then  divides  into  wrestling  and  dancing. 
The  ordinary  Greek  curriculum  was  running,  jumping,  wres- 
tling, throwing  the  javelin,  and  boxing.  Music  in  the  schools 
was  no  less  a  "  doing  "  process.  It  consisted  in  repeating 
poetry  to  a  musical  improvisation  which  would  express  the 
emotional  content  of  the  poem. 

While  this  education  in  habit-formation  through  the  use  of 
music  and  gymnastics  flourished,  the  simple  society  which 
gave  it  birth  was  giving  way  to  a  much  more  complex  one. 
In  the  political  world  the  old  aristocracy  was  passing  away  and 
a  democracy  of  free  citizens,  exercising  very  great  direct  powers 
over  the  wealth,  the  individual  liberties,  and  the  personal 
welfare  of  its  members,  was  taking  its  place.  On  the  economic 
side  trade  and  commerce  had  developed,  and  the  classes  pur- 
suing these  interests  came  to  replace  in  power  those  whose 
economic  basis  was  in  agricultural  or  pastoral  interests. 
Following  a  period  of  economic  expansion  and  of  division  of 
labor,  a  great  variety  of  new  social  and  industrial  activities 


1 8  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

sprang  up.  A  period  of  great  military  activity  was  followed 
by  one  of  expansion  of  national  power,  with  its  opportunities 
for  realization  of  personal  aims,  for  revelation  of  political 
ability,  and  for  personal  aggrandizement  through  the  direction, 
or  manipulation  of  public  affairs.  .  Small  city-states  now  were 
replaced  by  a  great  Grecian  people  with  a  common  culture, 
a  broader  horizon,  and  a  larger  social  opportunity.  This 
meant  a  closer  contact  with  foreign  ideas  and  customs  and 
a  consequent  toleration.  A  reflective  as  well  as  a  cultural 
literature  developed.  Religious  ideas  changed,  old  customs 
lost  their  compelling  force,  old  ideals  failed.  The  old  theology 
or  mythology  was  completely  undermined,  with  a  resulting 
change  in  philosophy  and  literature  as  well  as  in  morals  and 
religion.  In  this  new  world  the  traditional  education  of  train- 
ing in  habits  of  action  in  conformity  with  certain  simple 
fundamental  moral  ideals  lost  its  force. 

Out  of  this  situation,  secondary  education  as  a  practical 
process  evolved.  Neither  the  old  philosophy  and  religion  nor 
the  old-fashioned  training  sufficed  for  the  new  needs.  The 
demands  on  education  made  by  these  social  changes — political, 
economic,  ethical,  literary,  and  the  like  —  were  twofold. 
There  was  first  a  demand  for  greater  freedom  for  the  individual 
in  action  and  thought,  to  correspond  with  the  growth  of  freedom 
in  the  political  sphere.  Second,  there  was  a  demand  for  train- 
ing or  education  that  would  enable  the  individual  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  unprecedented  opportunities  for  personal 
achievement  and  aggrandizement.  Ability  to  discuss  all 
sorts  of  social,  political,  economic,  and  scientific  or  meta- 
physical questions ;  to  argue  in  public  in  the  market  place 
or  in  the  law  courts  ;  to  declaim  in  a  formal  manner  upon  almost 
any  topic ;  to  amuse  or  to  instruct  the  populace  upon  topics 
of  interest  or  questions  of  the  day ;  to  take  part  in  the  many 
diplomatic  embassies  and  political  missions  of  the  times,  —  was 
now  demanded.  In  fact,  the  demand  was  for  an  ability  to 
acquire  wealth  or  to  command  the  approval  and  control  the 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education         19 

votes  of  an  intelligent  democratic  society  much  like  our  own ; 
where,  however,  the  functions  of  printing  press,  telegraph, 
railroad,  and  all  modern  means  of  communication  were  per- 
formed through  public  speech  and  private  discourse,  and  where 
legal,  ecclesiastical,  and  other  professional  classes  of  teachers 
did  not  exist.  The  old  Athenian  state  made  no  provision 
whatever  for  higher  intellectual  training  of  a  formal  kind,  but 
it  did  offer  opportunity  for  such  development  in  the  freedom 
it  gave  to  the  individual  during  the  period  of  his  training  in 
the  gymnasium  and  after  the  military  training  of  the  Ephebic 
period. 

Whether  approached  from  the  theoretical  or  from  the  practi- 
cal side,  the  formal  subjects  of  study  became  the  basis  of  the 
new  education.  Out  of  the  social  and  intellectual  changes 
noted  grew  new  subjects,  foreign  in  character  to  the  simple 
music  and  gymnastics  of  the  early  period.  Grammar,  the  form 
and  arrangement  of  language ;  rhetoric,  the  form  and  arrange- 
ment of  written  or  oral  speech ;  logic  or  dialectic,  the  form  and 
arrangement  of  thought,  — were  the  contributions  of  the  soph- 
ist, the  rhetorician,  and  the  philosopher  of  this  period.  These 
formal  or  abstract  studies,  modifying  or  determining  habits 
of  thought  rather  than  habits  of  action,  now  became  the  basis 
of  education.  Grammar  and  rhetoric,  relating  more  directly 
to  everyday  life  as  participated  in  by  the  orator,  became  the 
practical  aspect  of  secondary  education.  Logic  or  dialectic, 
concerned  with  the  reflective  or  thought  life,  became  the  basis 
of  the  theoretical  phase.  Each  produced  its  own  type  of  school. 
The  rhetorical  school  and  the  dialectic  or  philosophical  school 
long  persisted ;  the  grammar  school  remains  to  the  present 
day. 

Origin  of  the  Theoretical  Distinction. — The  theoretical  dis- 
tinction between  elementary  and  secondary  education  arose 
with  those  Greek  thinkers  who  contemplated  the  conflict  aris- 
ing in  this  transition  from  a  simple  society  to  a  complex  one 
wherein  individualism  had  undermined  most  of  the  old  social 


2O  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

standards,  and  who  also  saw  this  conflict  between  the  practical 
and  the  theoretical  aspects  in  the  earliest  differentiation  of  sec- 
ondary education.  In  the  Republic  (Bk.  VII)  Plato  seeks  for  a 
scheme  of  education  adequate  to  produce  the  rulers  of  society,  a 
scheme  which  would  not  only  cultivate  the  virtues  demanded 
under  the  old  regime,  but  which  would  also  give  knowledge  and 
develop  virtue  and  disinterestedness.  Music  and  gymnastics 
he  considered  inadequate  and  the  useful  arts  demeaning. 
But  he  declares  in  favor  of  the  "  study  of  the  kind  which  leads 
naturally  to  reflection  but  which  seems  never  to  have  been 
rightfully  used ;  for  the  true  use  of  it  is  to  draw  us  towards 
being  (abstract  thought)."  He  finds  that  arithmetic,  geom- 
etry, astronomy,  and  harmony  comply  with  these  require- 
ments. These  in  turn  are  to  be  used  primarily  as  an  intro- 
duction to  the  study  of  abstract  ideas,  "  in  which  if  one 
perseveres,  he  attains  by  pure  intelligence  to  the  idea  of  good 
and  finds  himself  at  the  end  of  the  intellectual  world." 

Aristotle  first  formulated  this  distinction  in  his  psychologi- 
cal analysis : 

"  There  are  three  things  which  make  men  good  and  virtu- 
ous :  these  are  nature,  habit,  reason.  In  the  first  place, 
every  one  must  be  born  a  man  and  not  some  other  animal ; 
in  the  second  place,  he  must  have  a  certain  character,  both 
of  body  and  of  soul.  But  some  qualities  there  is  no  use  in 
having  at  birth,  for  they  are  altered  by  habit,  and  there  are 
some  gifts  of  nature  which  may  be  turned  by  habit  to  good 
or  bad.  Most  animals  lead  a  life  of  nature,  although  in 
lesser  particulars  some  are  influenced  by  habit  as  well.  Man 
has  reason,  in  addition,  and  man  only.  Wherefore  nature, 
habit,  reason,  must  be  in  harmony  with  one  another  —  for 
they  do  not  always  agree ;  men  do  many  things  against 
habit  and  nature,  if  reason  persuades  them  that  they  ought. 
We  have  already  determined  what  natures  are  likely  to  be 
most  easily  molded  by  the  hands  of  the  legislator.  All 
else  is  the  work  of  education ;  we  learn  some  things  by  habit 
and  some  by  instruction." 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        21 

This  distinction  of  Aristotle's  brings  out  most  clearly  the 
fundamental  difference  in  practice  between  elementary  and 
secondary  education  with  the  Greeks.  The  former  was  pri- 
marily the  formation  of  habit  through  athletic  activities,  the 
singing  of  songs,  the  memorizing  and  repetition  of  poetic 
legends,  and  the  improvisation  of  a  musical  accompaniment. 
Gracefulness  in  movement,  courage  and  quick  decision  in 
danger,  endurance  under  physical  hardships,  reverence  for 
elders  and  for  things  sacred,  obedience  to  authority,  devotion 
to  the  state,  good  judgment  in  practical  affairs,  temperance 
in  all  forms  of  personal  pleasure  or  relaxation,  were  thus  to  be 
obtained. 

But  the  formation  of  such  habits  no  longer  sufficed  to  equip 
a  youth  to  enter  the  changed  social  life.  He  must  have 
guidance  in  adapting  himself  to  new  and  changing  condi- 
tions. He  needed  not  only  to  form  such  habits,  adequate 
under  the  old  conditions,  but  to  develop  the  power  to  modify 
his  habits  or  to  form  new  and  more  complex  ones,  to  meet  new 
and  complex  situations.  Therefore  he  needed  instruction  as 
well  as  training.  Herein  lies  the  fundamental  distinction 
between  the  two  stages  of  education.  Elementary  education 
looked  to  the  formation  of  habits  by  the  process  of  training ; 
secondary  education  sought  to  develop  general  intelligence 
by  the  process  of  instruction. 

Aristotle  further  elaborates  this  distinction  on  the  ethical 
and  philosophical  side.  In  his  ethical  theory  he  has  denned 
goodness  as  the  harmony  between  the  organ  or  organism  and 
its  purpose  or  function,  and  has  discovered  two  kinds  of  good- 
ness. There  is  goodness  of  being  and  goodness  of  doing ;  good- 
ness of  thinking  and  goodness  of  acting  ;  goodness  of  intellect 
and  goodness  of  character.  The  special  function  of  the  higher 
stage  of  education  is  to  secure  this  goodness  of  intellect ;  to 
provide  the  rational  basis  for  conduct ;  to  furnish  the  in- 
tellectual preparation  for  the  proper  functioning  of  the  in- 
dividual in  society. 


22  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS  OF  GREECE.  — The  prac- 
tical elaboration  of  these  educational  processes  early  evolved  in 
Greek  experience  the  same  problem  which  confronts  the  modern 
educator.  Are  these  needs  of  society  and  of  the  individual 
best  met  by  a  process  of  instruction  which  deals  wholly  with 
the  interpretative  aspect  of  experience  more  or  less  remotely 
connected  with  the  actual  situations  of  everyday  life?  Or 
is  it  better  met  by  a  schooling  which  contains  large  elements 
of  training  in  the  actual  application  of  the  products  of  in- 
struction through  activities  which  closely  resemble  the  or- 
dinary social  routine,  if  they  are  not  actually  a  part  of  it? 
Hence  arose  the  two  types  of  schools,  the  philosophical 
or  dialectic  and  the  rhetorical. 

The  Philosophical  Schools.  —  The  more  important  of  the 
philosophical  schools  were  the  Academician,  the  Peripatetic, 
the  Stoic,  and  the  Cynic.  But  there  were  others  of  less  sig- 
nificance. And  of  even  greater  importance  to  the  youth 
entering  this  stage  of  education  were  the  numerous  prepara- 
tory schools  either  connected  with  these  advanced  schools  of 
philosophy  or  independent  of  them.  They  gave  the  gram- 
matical training  essential  to  entrance  upon  the  logical  or 
philosophical  discussions  and  gave  also  the  rudimentary 
training  along  these  lines.  The  Platonic  dialogues  and  the 
Greek  philosophical  literature  in  general  are  the  products 
of  these  higher  schools  and  represent  their  work  at  its  best. 
They  also  indicate  the  simplicity  of  organization  in  these 
schools,  the  informality  of  method,  the  general  vagueness 
or  abstractness  of  their  content  of  instruction.  That  the 
majority  of  such  schools  were  inferior  to  these  four  more  noted 
ones  is  indicated  by  the  variety  of  criticisms  directed  against 
the  work  of  the  Sophists,  most  of  whom  after  all  belonged  to 
this  group  of  teachers. 

The  Rhetorical  Schools.  —  These  were  of  a  far  more  prac- 
tical character.  While  they  gave  instruction  in  grammar 
and  literature,  their  characteristic  work  was  the  actual  train- 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        23 

ing  in  declamation  and  in  oratory.  The  ordinary  school  - 
the  grammar  school  or  school  of  letters  —  also  frequently 
taught  arithmetic  and  geometry.  But  a  practical  train- 
ing in  the  use  of  language  as  a  means  of  influencing  one's 
fellows,  of  defending  one's  rights,  and  of  furthering  one's 
own  interest  in  public  and  business  life  was  the  chief 
aim.  t 

Of  the  method  of  procedure  of  these  schools  we  have  some 
indications  left.  There  were  various  types  of  oratory  in 
which  the  youth  were  trained.  Chief  of  them  were  the  fo- 
rensic, the  deliberative,  the  apologetic,  the  expository.  Speci- 
men subjects  of  such  exercises  are  mentioned.  The  speeches 
of  the  Sophists  referred  to  in  Plato,  those  of  Socrates,  and  the 
lectures  of  Aristotle  furnish  examples  of  these  discourses  in 
their  perfected  form. 

Little  is  known  of  the  organization  of  these  schools.     In 
the  later  period,  in  the  flourishing  period  of  the  so-called 
University  of  Athens,  numerous  tutors,  some  affiliated  with 
the   professors   of    the   University,  some   independent,    were 
found  in  connection  with   this  crowning  institution  of    the 
Greek    educational    system.     In   other    Greek    cities    similar 
schools  flourished.1     However  numerous  and  prosperous  the 
schools  of  this  type,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  state  ever 
extended  any  support  or  supervision  to  them.     To  the  Sophists, 
the  rhetoricians,  and  the  philosophers  of  the  University  teach- 
ing staff,  the  Greek  state  and  later  the  Roman  government 
gave  both  oversight  and  financial  assistance.     In   the  long 
transition  period  between  the  time  when  the  Ephebic  train- 
ing was  wholly  military,  physical,  and  civic  to  the  time  when 
it  had  become  wholly  literary  under  the  University  faculty, 
the  Athenian  government  continued  to  exercise  control  over 
the  native  youth  who  chose  to  strive  for  this  type  of  education. 
But  as  it  took  on  a  literary  character,  this  stage  of  education 
ceased  to  be  compulsory.     At  the  same  time  it  came  to  be 
'Sec  Waklen,  L'nhcrsitics  of  Ancient  Greece. 


24  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

sought  after  by  non-Athenian  youth  and  so  ceased  to  be 
distinctive. 

However,  in  the  very  early  stages  of  the  differentiation  of 
these  two  types  of  education,  the  defects  which  are  yet  attrib- 
uted to  them  aroused  criticism.  The  literary,  philosophical 
or  dialectic  education  was  held  to  be  abstract,  theoretic,  and 
impracticable.  The  rhetorical  schools  were  regarded  by  the 
advocates  of  the  other  type  as  materialistic,  illiberal,  or  even 
as  tending  to  lower  the  whole  moral  tone  of  society. 

Thus  for  both  theoretic  and  practical  aspects,  Greek  educa- 
tion and  Greek  experience  outlined  the  present  problems  of 
secondary  education. 

THE  ROMAN  SECONDARY  SCHOOL.  —  The  Romans 
accepted  the  Greek  educational  system,  particularly  that  por- 
tion of  interest  in  this  study,  with  little  modification.  They 
added  little  to  it  of  significance  to  modern  times.  They  sys- 
tematized and  perfected  curriculum  and  method  ;  and  in  the 
latter  period  of  their  history  they  built  up  a  system  of  schools, 
some  remnant  of  which  persisted  long  into  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  historian  Suetonius,  writing  about  121  A.D.,  gives  as 
explicit  an  account  of  the  beginnings  of  secondary  education 
in  Rome  as  one  can  now  give. 

11  The  science  of  grammar  was  in  ancient  times  far  from 
being  in  vogue  at  Rome ;  indeed,  it  was  of  little  use  in  a  rude 
state  of  society,  when  the  people  were  engaged  in  constant 
wars,  and  had  not  much  time  to  bestow  on  the  cultivation 
of  the  liberal  arts.  At  the  outset,  its  pretensions  were  very 
slender,  for  the  earliest  men  of  learning,  who  were  both  poets 
and  orators,  may  be  considered  as  half-Greek :  I  speak  of 
Livius  and  Ennius,  who  are  acknowledged  to  have  taught 
both  languages  as  well  at  Rome  as  in  foreign  parts.  But 
they  only  translated  from  the  Greek,  and  if  they  composed 
anything  of  their  own  in  Latin,  it  was  only  from  what  they 
had  before  read.  .  .  .  The  appellation  of  grammarian  was 
borrowed  from  the  Greeks ;  but  at  first  the  Latins  called 
such  persons  literati.  .  .  .  The  early  grammarians  taught 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        25 

rhetoric  also,  and  we  have  many  of  their  treatises  which  in- 
clude both  sciences ;  whence  it  arose,  I  think,  that  in  later 
times,  although  the  two  professions  had  then  become  distinct, 
the  old  custom  was  retained,  or  the  grammarians  introduced 
into  their  teaching  some  of  the  elements  required  for  public 
speaking,  such  as  the  problem,  the  periphrasis,  the  choice 
of  words,  description  of  character,  and  the  like ;  in  order 
that  they  might  not  transfer  their  pupils  to  the  rhetoricians 
no  better  than  ill- taught  boys." 

The  Grammar  School  then  became  the  dominant  type. 
For  while  the  rhetorical  school  was  often  added  as  a  superior 
school,  yet  more  frequently,  especially  when  preceded  by 
the  Indus,  or  elementary  school,  the  grammar  school  added 
on  the  rudiments  of  rhetorical  training,  by  giving  the  youth 
practical  training  in  declamation  and  oratory.  The  grammar 
school  was  of  two  types  :  one  teaching  Greek,  the  other  Latin. 
About  161  B.C.  the  Senate  decreed  "  that  no  philosophers  or 
rhetoricians  be  allowed  in  Rome."  And  in  92  B.C.  a  similar 
action  regarding  Latin  rhetoricians  was  taken  by  the  Censors. 
This  indicates  the  foreign  origin  of  the  formal  Roman  educa- 
tion, its  effect  in  undermining  old  custom,  and  its  purpose 
in  preparing  youths  to  avail  themselves  of  new  opportunities. 
By  the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century  the  grammar  school, 
subsidized  if  not  supported  by  the  state  or  the  municipality, 
became  a  common  feature.  Before  the  decline  of  the  Empire 
their  existence  may  be  said  to  have  been  universal.  In  376 
the  Emperor  Gratian  determined  the  schedule  of  salaries 
and  assigned  the  grammar  teachers  a  place  in  the  municipal 
budgets.  The  grammar  school  master  was  to  receive  a  stipend 
20  times  as  great  as  the  annual  wage  of  the  ordinary  workman, 
and  the  rhetoric  master  one  24  times  as  large. 

The  Curriculum  was  elaborated  and  crystallized  in  the 
form  which  it  retained  until  the  Renaissance.  The  grammar 
and  the  rhetoric  of  the  early  centuries  were  evidently  very 
simple.  But  when  Cicero's  DC  Oratore  was  published  (55  B.C.) 


26  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

-  though  Cicero  represented  a  foreign  training  —  grammar 
and  rhetoric  had  come  to  include  all  literature,  or  at  least  a 
very  broad  literary  training.  With  the  De  Oratore  of  Tacitus 
(79  A.D.)  and  the  Institutes  of  Quintilian  (96  A.D.),  this  curric- 
ulum, still  literary,  contained  history,  poetry,  philosophy, 
and  the  entire  range  of  subjects  then  known.  In  fact  the 
liberal  arts  were  not  yet  limited  to  seven,  but  included  archi- 
tecture, medicine,  and  philosophy,  along  with  grammar, 
rhetoric,  dialectic,  arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy. 
While  this  wide  range  of  subjects  was  held  up  as  the  proper 
preparation  of  the  true  orator,  it  is  evident  even  from  these 
treatises  which  expound  the  ideal,  that  the  work  of  most,  if 
not  all,  secondary  schools  was  confined  to  a  very  narrow  though 
thorough  training  in  grammar  and  rhetoric.  By  the  latter  is 
meant  both  the  practical  training  in  declamation  and  oratory 
and  the  instruction  underlying  these.  Of  the  scope  of  rhetori- 
cal training  Cicero  says : 

"  In  my  opinion,  indeed,  no  man  can  be  an  orator  possessed 
of  every  praiseworthy  accomplishment,  unless  he  has  attained 
the  knowledge  of  everything  important  and  of  all  liberal  arts, 
for  his  language  must  be  ornate  and  copious  from  knowledge, 
since,  unless  there  be  beneath  the  surface  matter  understood 
and  felt  by  the  speaker,  oratory  becomes  an  empty  and  almost 
puerile  flow  of  words." 

The  views  of  Tacitus  are  similar : 

"  On  the  contrary,  he  alone  can  justly  be  deemed  an  orator, 
who  can  speak  on  every  subject  gracefully,  ornately,  and 
persuasively,  in  a  manner  suitable  to  the  dignity  of  his  subject, 
and  with  pleasure  to  his  hearers.  .  .  .  Accordingly  the 
ancient  orators  not  only  studied  the  civil  laws,  but  also  gram- 
mar, poetry,  music,  and  geometry.  Indeed,  there  are  few 
cases  (perhaps  I  might  justly  say  there  are  none)  wherein  a 
skill  in  the  first  is  not  absolutely  necessary ;  and  there  are 
many  in  which  an  acquaintance  with  the  last-mentioned 
sciences  is  highly  requisite." 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education         27 

As  to  the  elaboration  of  the  content  of  rhetoric  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  call  to  mind  that  Aristotle,  Cicero,  Quintilian,  are 
not  only  the  originators  of  this  science,  but  are  among  the 
greatest  authorities  now  quoted.  The  subject  stands  sub- 
stantially to-day  as  it  was  elaborated  by  these  writers.  Nor 
is  this  Quintilian's  only  contribution  to  education,  for  his 
Institutes  is  not  only  the  first  but  probably  the  most  volu- 
minous and  detailed  of  the  systematic  treatises  that  have 
yet  appeared  on  the  whole  subject  of  education. 

Donatus  (c.  400  A.D.)  and  Priscian  (c.  500  A.D.)  completed 
the  systematization  of  the  curriculum  and  organized  the 
elements  of  literary  education  in  the  form  in  which  they  were 
transmitted  to  the  Middle  Ages.  For  several  centuries  their 
work  constituted  almost  the  entire  structure  of  literary  educa- 
tion. Boethius  (c.  480-524)  made  a  similar  contribution  in 
dialectic  and  philosophy.  The  work  of  these  men  brought 
the  Roman  epoch  in  education  to  a  close,  and  epitomized  its 
contributions  to  the  curriculum. 

The  Roman  Contribution  to  Method.  —  The  Romans  sys- 
tematized method  as  they  did  the  curriculum.  Their  writers 
have  left  concrete  indications  of  methods  used,  from  the 
learning  of  the  alphabet  to  the  study  of  philosophy.  In  fact 
Quintilian's  treatise  is  chiefly  a  discussion  of  method.  He 
would  have  the  idea  acquired  writh  the  form,  would  use  means 
to  arouse  interest,  would  avoid  compulsion,  would  have  the 
study  of  Greek  grammar  precede  that  of  Latin  grammar. 
The  detail  with  which  this  greatest  of  Roman  schoolmasters 
treats  the  subject  as  well  as  the  rational  conclusions  which 
he  usually  reaches  may  be  judged  from  the  introductory  para- 
graph of  the  chapter  on  reading. 

"  Reading  remains  to  be  considered ;  in  which  how  a  boy 
may  know  when  to  take  breath,  where  to  divide  a  verse,  where 
the  sense  is  concluded,  where  it  begins,  when  the  voice  is  to 
be  raised  or  lowered,  what  is  to  be  uttered  with  any  particular 
inflection  of  sound,  or  what  is  to  be  pronounced  with  greater 


28  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

slowness  or  rapidity,  with  greater  animation  or  gentleness 
than  other  passages,  can  be  taught  only  in  practice.  There 
is  but  one  direction,  therefore,  which  I  have  to  give  in  this 
part  of  my  work,  namely,  that  he  may  be  able  to  do  all  this 
successfully,  let  him  understand  what  he  reads.  .  .  .  Other 
points  demand  much  admonition  to  be  given  on  them ;  and 
care  is  to  be  taken,  above  all  things,  that  tender  minds,  which 
will  imbibe  deeply  whatever  has  entered  them  while  rude  and 
ignorant  of  everything,  may  learn,  not  only  what  is  eloquent, 
but,  still  more,  what  is  morally  good." 

With  great  detail,  the  curriculum  of  literature,  grammar, 
rhetoric,  music,  philosophy,  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy, 
and  the  entire  range  of  ancient  learning  is  presented.  The 
content  of  these  subjects,  their  educational  value,  the  best 
methods  of  study  and  presentation,  are  considered.  All 
these  were  essential  for  the  orator  ;  and  the  orator  constituted 
the  one  type  of  educated  man.  He  was  the  philosopher 
active  in  the  affairs  of  life.  This  one  profession  comprised 
the  entire  range  of  the  modern  professions,  —  lawyer,  states- 
man, publicist,  teacher,  editor  or  molder  of  public  opinion, 
—  even  clergyman,  for  orators  were  the  guardians  of  public 
morals.  Caesar's  well-known  fondness  for  the  public  address 
is  an  evidence  of  the  part  which  this  ability  played  in  the 
equipment  of  a  man  of  affairs. 

The  relation  of  the  processes  of  instruction  to  the  processes 
of  practical  training  in  oratorical  powers  undertaken  by  the 
higher  schools,  with  the  resulting  problems  of  adjustments, 
is  thus  stated  by  Quintilian  : 

"  It  has  been  a  prevalent  custom  (which  daily  gains  ground 
more  and  more)  for  pupils  to  be  sent  to  the  teachers  of  elo- 
quence, to  the  Latin  teachers  always,  and  to  the  Greeks 
sometimes,  at  a  more  advanced  age  than  reason  requires. 
Of  this  practice  there  are  two  causes :  that  the  rhetoricians, 
especially  our  own,  have  relinquished  a  part  of  their  duties, 
and  that  the  grammarians  have  appropriated  what  does  not 
belong  to  them.  The  rhetoricians  think  it  their  business 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education         29 

merely  to  declaim,  and  to  teach  the  art  and  practice  of  de- 
claiming, confining  themselves,  too,  to  deliberate  and  judicial 
subjects  (for  others  they  despise  as  beneath  their  profession), 
while  the  grammarians,  on  their  part,  do  not  deem  it  sufficient 
to  take  what  has  been  left  them  (on  which  account  also 
gratitude  should  be  accorded  them),  but  encroach  even  upon 
expository  and  deliberative  speeches,  in  which  the  very  great- 
est efforts  of  eloquence  are  displayed." 

Thus  we  get  a  prevision  of  those  problems  of  adjustment 
of  the  secondary  stage  of  education  to  advanced  schools  and 
to  practical  professional  demands  which  yet  demand  the 
teacher's  attention. 

Lists  of  subjects  for  debate,  methods  of  training,  forms  of 
oratory,  styles  of  address,  are  all  given,  indicating  that  greater 
attention  was  paid  to  the  concrete  details  of  this  education 
than  by  modern  law  school  or  theological  seminary,  whose 
work  would  more  nearly  approximate  that  of  the  Roman 
schools  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  than  would  that  of  the 
modern  secondary  school. 

This  contribution  of  the  Roman  school  to  organization  and 
method,  though  its  influence  evidently  pervaded  the  Empire 
during  the  centuries  of  its  decline,  lapsed  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  with  the  Renaissance,  Quintilian's 
Institutes  became  both  the  guide  of  the  new  teachers  of  litera- 
ture and  the  authority  commonly  referred  to  and  followed  by 
several  generations  of  scholars  and  teachers,  now  recognized 
as  composing  a  new  estate  in  society. 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL. 
-  Little  of  permanent  value  was  contributed  by  the  Middle 
Ages  to  the  traditions  of  the  secondary  school.  That  little 
was  through  the  influences  making  the  work  of  the  grammar 
school  a  direct  vocational  training.  The  rhetoric  school 
died  out.  Rhetoric  came  to  be  limited  to  a  training  in  pre- 
paring legal  papers  and  records,  conducting  legal  and  polit- 
ical or  diplomatic  correspondence,  and  in  general  for  the 


30  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

secretarial  work  which  included  the  genesis  of  many  modern 
professional  activities.  Such  training  was  given  in  the  gram- 
mar schools  under  the  title  of  rhetoric.  Some  little  arith- 
metic, sufficient  to  calculate  the  calendar,  with  its  numerous 
feast  days,  was  also  included.  Logic  or  dialectic  in  the  early 
Middle  Ages  was  of  little  or  no  importance,  and  during  the 
latter  centuries  of  this  period  produced  its  own  institution, 
the  university.  So  the  grammar  school  came  to  be  the 
secondary  school  par  excellence  and  continued  to  monopolize 
this  field  until  a  very  recent  date. 

As  the  scope  of  rhetoric  broadened  during  the  Roman 
period  to  include  the  preparatory  training  for  the  wide  range 
of  professions,  so  did  grammar  undergo  a  similar  expansion 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  Not  only  did  it  include  rhetoric 
and  the  training  of  the  clerk  and  secretary,  the  embryonic 
lawyer  and  diplomat ;  it  provided  in  a  similar  way  the  training 
for  the  clergy,  which  profession  then  included  the  entire 
literary  or  learned  class. 

Types  and  Extent  of  these  Schools.  —  The  most  important 
change  which  these  schools  underwent  in  the  transition  from 
the  Roman  period  to  the  Middle  Ages  was  that  they  passed 
from  the  control  of  the  state  to  that  of  the  church.  This 
process  was  a  gradual  one  in  the  Romanized  population  and 
occurred  as  the  bishop  gradually  acquired  the  authority  of 
the  civil  magistrates.  In  the  population  largely  composed 
of  the  new  Teutonic  elements  there  were  no  schools  to  replace, 
and  the  rudimentary  training  in  grammar  or  letters  was 
sufficient,  but  at  the  same  time  essential.  So  the  grammar 
school,  now  the  bishop's  or  the  episcopal  school,  became  general 
throughout  western  Christendom. 

This  transfer  took  place  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  cen- 
turies. Though  there  is  evidence  that  there  was  opposition 
upon  the  part  of  churchmen  to  the  church's  assuming  this 
authority  and  responsibility,  yet  by  the  seventh  century  it 
seemed  to  be  recognized  as  necessary,  for  as  Isidore  remarked. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        31 

"  It  is  better  to  have  grammar  than  heresy."  Under  the 
title  of  grammar  schools  they  are  found  in  England  under 
Augustine  early  in  the  seventh  century.  Alcuin's  school  at 
York  was  a  century  later.  A  canon  of  826,  rescinded  in  1073, 
required  the  maintenance  of  such  schools  by  all  bishops. 
By  the  latter  period,  however,  a  distinct  officer  of  the  bishopric, 
the  chancellor,  had  been  evolved,  in  whose  hands  was  placed 
the  direct  responsibility  for  the  bishop's  school  and  also  for 
supervising  all  schools  and  licensing  the  schoolmasters. 

Meanwhile  schools  in  churches  other  than  cathedrals  were 
growing  up.  In  churches  having  a  collegiate  organization 
or  even  in  parochial  churches  with  adequate  chantry  founda- 
tions, grammar  schools  were  to  be  established.  A  decretal 
of  1215  indicates  the  application  of  this  order  to  England 
and  the  general  papal  authorization  upon  which  it  is  based. 

"  In  every  cathedral  or  other  church  of  sufficient  means, 
a  master  ought  to  be  elected  by  the  prelate  or  chapter,  and 
the  income  of  a  prebend  assigned  to  him,  and  in  every  metro- 
politan church  a  theologian  also  ought  to  be  elected.  And 
if  the  church  is  not  rich  enough  to  provide  a  grammarian  and 
theologian,  it  shall  provide  for  the  theologian  from  the  reve- 
nues of  his  church,  and  cause  provision  to  be  made  for  the 
grammarian  in  some  church  of  his  city  or  diocese." 

Meanwhile  the  monastic  orders  had  come  into  control  of 
many  episcopal  and  collegiate  churches  and  of  the  schools  as 
well.  Similar  schools  wrere  frequently  added  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  monastic  chapter.  Schools  were  by  no  means  a 
universal  feature  of  monastic  organization  and  were  probably 
always  inferior  in  importance  to  the  bishops'  schools.  They 
sometimes  cared  for  boys  outside  their  order,  but  oftener 
limited  their  attention  to  their  own  novices. 

Free  Schools  and  Endowments.  —  Two  other  changes 
occurred  during  this  period  which  were  of  as  fundamental 
importance  as  the  transfer  of  the  schools  to  ecclesiastical 
control.  One  was  the  growth  of  endowments  for  the  support 


32  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  the  schools,  a  support  now  rendered  essential  by  the  with- 
drawal of  civil  contributions.  The  other  was  that  these 
schools  became  free,  at  least  to  a  select  number  of  pupils. 
This  change  was  partially  consequent  upon  the  fact  that 
these  were  church  schools  for  the  training  of  prospective 
members  of  the  clergy,  and  partially  consequent  upon  the 
growth  of  endowments  and  the  stress  laid  by  the  medieval 
church  upon  the  virtue  of  charity.  Such  endowments  began 
when  the  bishop  set  aside  a  portion  of  the  cathedral  endow- 
ment for  the  support  of  the  schoolmaster,  who  had  been 
recognized  for  several  centuries  as  a  distinct  officer.  Before 
this  the  schoolmaster  was  maintained  out  of  the  general 
revenues,  as  were  the  remaining  clerks  and  the  canons.  Grad- 
ually it  became  the  custom  for  bishops  and  even  for  kings  or 
private  parties  to  establish  such  foundations  for  the  school- 
master. The  decretal  quoted  on  page  31  is  probably  the 
authority  for  the  very  general  introduction  of  this  custom. 

This  custom  of  endowing  secondary  education,  which  in 
the  early  days  of  the  universities  did  not  extend  to  higher 
education,  was  so  extended  when  private  parties  came  to 
make  such,  gifts,  either  for  the  support,  in  whole  or  part,  of 
institutions  already  existing  or  of  masters  already  at  work, 
or  for  the  creation  of  entirely  new  foundations.  A  new  epoch 
in  education  was  opened  by  one  of  these  latter  foundations,  that 
of  William  of  Wykeham  at  Winchester  in  1382.  This  foun- 
dation was  made  on  such  a  scale  that  the  educational  features 
entirely  overshadowed  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  philanthropic, 
and  in  consequence  Winchester  is  commonly  held  to  be  the 
oldest  of  the  type  of  great  Public  Schools  of  England. 

This  feature  of  separate  endowment  was  characteristic 
chiefly  of  England.  But  the  general  endowment  of  the 
grammar  school  or  of  the  grammar  school  master  through 
cathedral  or  monastic  chapter  or  chantry  foundation  was 
found  throughout  Western  Europe.  Subsequent  develop- 
ment takes  one  into  the  Renaissance-Reformation  period. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        33 

It  is  presumably  true  that  cathedral  schools  gave  free  in- 
struction to  the  members  of  the  bishop's  entourage  or  to  pro- 
spective clergy.  But  there  are  numerous  indications  that 
many  masters  taught  grammar  privately  and  that  even  the 
ecclesiastical  foundations  also  had  fees.  The  licensing  of 
schoolmasters  developed  probably  because  of  financial  value 
of  the  monopoly  as  well  as  to  preserve  orthodoxy.  When 
the  period  of  endowments  is  reached,  it  is  clear  from  the  reading 
of  the  many  deeds  of  gifts  that  their  chief  purpose  was  to 
furnish  free  educational  opportunity,  especially  for  poor  youths. 
One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  this  was  Eton,  founded  by 
King  Henry  VI  in  1440  for  twenty-five  "  poor  and  indigent 
scholars  to  learn  grammar  "  with  "  one  master  or  teacher  in 
grammar,  whose  duty  it  is  to  teach  the  said  scholars  and  others 
whatsoever  and  whencesoever  from  our  realm  of  England 
flocking  to  the  said  college  in  the  rudiments  of  grammar, 
gratis,  without  the  exaction  of  money  or  anything."  Sub- 
sequent foundations  of  this  type  became  more  significant  in 
the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation  period,  though  they 
were  of  great  frequency  in  the  closing  centuries  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

The  Curriculum.  —  Alcuin  enumerates  the  studies  pursued 
at  York  in  the  eighth  century,  naming  law,  music,  and  theology 
in  addition  to  the  seven  liberal  arts.  But  this  was  beyond 
the  range  of  most  schools  and  of  most  scholars.  Later,  how- 
ever, he  calls  the  school  a  grammar  school,  distinguishing  it 
from  the  song  school.  In  this,  as  in  all  schools,  the  great 
emphasis  was  put  upon  grammatical  texts  with  the  numerous 
commentaries.  Throughout  these  centuries  and  until  the 
university  period  the  chief  distinction  made  was  that  between 
the  grammar  school  and  the  song  school.  The  following 
excerpt  from  an  ordinance  of  1477  will  make  this  distinction 
clear : 

"  Ordinance.  And  that  the  grammar  schoolmaster  shall 
henceforth  have  the  jurisdiction  and  government  of  all  scholars 


34  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  the  liberty  and  precinct  of  this  town,  except  the  petties 
called  ABCs  and  song,  taking  only  for  his  fees,  from  every 
grammar  scholar,  psalter  scholar,  and  primer  scholar  according 
to  the  scale  fixed  by  the  lord  Bishop  of  Norwich,  viz.  for  a 
grammarian  iod.,  psalterian  8d.  and  primarian  6d.  for  quar- 
terage." 

The  curriculum  of  the  medieval  grammar  school  was  as 
restricted  as  the  term  indicates.  Dialectic  or  logic  became 
of  importance  only  with  the  universities.  Rhetoric,  as  in- 
dicated above,  was  restricted  to  technical  legal  preparation 
of  a  rudimentary  character.  The  content  of  grammar  school 
education  was  the  content  of  grammar.  Fortunately  that 
was  broader  than  the  present  use  of  the  term  indicates ;  for 
within  its  scope  was  included  all  that  those  periods  knew  of 
literature.  The  advanced  text  most  commonly  used  was 
Priscian,  which  was  quite  a  thesaurus  of  Latin  literature, 
particularly  of  Vergil. 

Method.  —  The  medieval  school  added  little  of  permanent 
value  to  method.  The  first  months,  or  even  years,  were 
devoted  to  Donatus  —  the  "  dry  bones  "  of  linguistic  rules, 
definitions,  and  paradigms.  This  was  mastered  by  sheer 
effort  of  memory.  Later  texts,  for  instance  the  Doctrinale 
of  Alexander  de  Villa  Dei,  attempted  to  lighten  this  work 
through  versification ;  as  the  Distyches  of  Cato  did,  for  ex- 
ample, for  vocabulary  purposes.  The  catechetical  form  is 
found  in  some  texts  and  towards  the  close  of  this  period  was 
widely  used  in  the  schools.  The  various  texts  written  by 
Alcuin  offer  an  example  of  the  crudest  kind.  The  dialogue 
form  was  also  used  as  well  as  that  of  formal  address  woven 
into  literary  text.  When  schools  became  well  developed  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  period,  an  elaboration  of  method  occurred. 
The  favorite  form  became  that  of  "  apposition,"  wherein 
teacher  and  pupil  carried  on  a  spirited  debate  concerning 
rules,  verbal  forms,  interpretation,  etc.  No  doubt  in  its 
earliest  stages  this  was  pure  memory  work  upon  the  part  of 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        35 

the  pupil  and  scarcely  differed  from  the  catechetical  method. 
But  skill  and  confidence  developed  with  training,  and  the 
contest  became  one  of  genuine  "  apposition."  All  teaching 
was  by  individual  instruction. 

The  refinement  of  method  with  advanced  students  was  the 
application  of  the  various  forms  of  interpretation  to  literary 
passages  or  sentences  or  words.  These  forms  of  interpreta- 
tion were  the  literal,  the  allegorical,  the  moral,  and  the  mystical 
or  anagogical.  The  significance  of  these  various  types  of 
method  can  best  be  given  in  the  words  of  the  greatest  intellect 
and  teacher  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  The  Banquet,  Dante 
says: 

"  I  say  then,  as  is  narrated  in  the  first  chapter,  that  this 
exposition  must  be  literal  and  allegorical ;  and  to  make  this 
explicit  one  should  know  that  it  is  possible  to  understand  a 
book  in  four  different  ways,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  explained 
chiefly  in  this  manner. 

"  The  one  is  termed  literal,  and  this  is  that  which  does  not 
extend  beyond  the  text  itself,  such  as  is  the  fit  narration  of 
that  thing  whereof  you  are  discoursing,  an  appropriate  ex- 
ample of  which  is  the  third  song,  which  discourses  of  nobility. 

"  Another  is  termed  allegorical,  and  it  is  that  which  is  con- 
cealed under  the  veil  of  fables,  and  is  a  truth  concealed  under 
a  beautiful  untruth ;  as  when  Ovid  says  that  Orpheus  with 
his  lute  made  the  wild  beasts  tame,  and  made  the  trees  and 
the  stones  to  follow  him,  which  signifies  that  the  wise  man 
with  the  instrument  of  his  voice  makes  cruel  hearts  gentle 
and  humble,  and  makes  those  follow  his  will  who  have  not 
the  living  force  of  knowledge  and  of  art ;  who,  having  not  the 
reasoning  life  of  any  knowledge  whatever,  are  as  the  stones. 
And  in  order  that  this  hidden  thing  should  be  discovered  by 
the  wise,  it  will  be  demonstrated  in  the  last  treatise.  Verily 
the  theologians  take  this  meaning  otherwise  than  do  the  poets  ; 
but,  because  my  intention  here  is  to  follow  the  way  of  the 
poets,  I  shall  take  the  allegorical  sense  according  as  it  is  used 
by  the  poets. 

"  The  third  sense  is  termed  moral ;   and  this  is  that  which 


36  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  readers  ought  intently  to  search  for  in  books,  for  their 
own  advantage  and  for  that  of  their  descendants ;  as  one 
can  espy  in  the  Gospel,  when  Christ  ascended  the  Mount 
for  the  transfiguration,  that,  of  the  twelve  Apostles,  He  took 
with  Him  only  three.  From  which  one  can  understand  in 
the  moral  sense  that  in  the  most  secret  things  we  ought  to 
have  but  little  company. 

"  The  fourth  sense  is  termed  mystical,  that  is,  above  sense, 
supernatural ;  and  this  it  is,  when  spiritually  one  expounds  a 
writing  which  even  in  the  literal  sense  by  the  things  signified 
bears  express  reference  to  the  Divine  things  of  eternal  glory ; 
as  one  can  see  in  that  song  of  the  prophet  which  says  that 
by  the  exodus  of  the  people  of  Israel  from  Egypt  Judea  is 
made  holy  and  free.  That  this  happens  to  Ije  true  according 
to  the  letter  is  evident.  Not  less  true  is  that  which  it  means 
spiritually,  that  in  the  soul's  liberation  from  sin  (or  in  the 
exodus  of  the  soul  from  sin)  it  is  made  holy  and  free  in  its 
powers. 

"  But  in  demonstrating  these,  the  literal  must  always  go 
first,  as  that  in  whose  sense  the  others  are  included,  and  with- 
out which  it  would  be  impossible  and  irrational  to  understand 
the  others." 

THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL  IN  THE  RENAISSANCE- 
REFORMATION  PERIOD.  THE  LATIN  GRAMMAR 
SCHOOL.  —  During  this  period  there  developed  two  types  of 
secondary  school  which  persisted  throughout  the  modern  period 
and  with  some  changes  form  the  leading  types  to-day.  The 
dominant  type  was  the  Latin  grammar  school,  which  took  its 
place  in  the  developing  national  systems  as  the  prevailing  form 
of  this  school.  In  the  growing  state  systems  it  became  the 
central  core.  It  made  the  most  general  appeal  of  all  schools, 
opened  its  opportunities  to  all  who  were  competent  to  do  its 
work  and,  at  least  in  the  opinion  of  educators  in  its  day,  offered 
an  intellectual  training  which  prepared  for  all  the  higher 
activities  of  social  life.  While  universally  planned  as  the  Latin 
grammar  school,  it  received  different  national  titles :  the 
Ginnasio  in  Italy,  the  Gymnasium  in  Germany,  the  Lycee  in 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        37 

France,  the  Public  School  in  England,  the  Grammar  School  in 
the  American  colonies.  The  term  "  college  "  was  occasionally 
used  in  each  of  these  countries. 

The  Latin  school  remained  the  dominant  type  and  the 
bearer  of  educational  traditions  through  the  modern  centuries. 
It  became  the  most  stable,  and  socially  and  politically  the 
most  significant,  part  of  the  national  school  system.  Its 
procedure  was  perfected,  its  method  established,  its  curric- 
ulum fixed,  its  prestige  rendered  all  powerful  and  its  con- 
serving influence  profound.  For  many  generations,  even  for 
many  centuries,  the  Latin  grammar  school  determined  the 
view  of  education  held  by  the  teaching  profession  and  by  the 
public  in  general. 

The  Establishment  of  Schools.  —  The  outstanding  feature 
of  the  Renaissance  period  was  the  creation  of  a  very  general 
interest  in  literature,  in  culture  in  general,  and  in  the  develop- 
ment of  literary  schools.  It  may  be  said,  on  the  contrary, 
that  this  new  interest  resulted  at  most  in  the  creation  of  a 
small  group  of  literary  men,  who  at  best  had  slight  influence 
on  the  life  of  the  community  and  the  course  of  history.  Pre- 
vious to  the  Renaissance  there  had  existed  a  literary  educa- 
tion for  a  small  group  of  clerks  including  some  of  the  clergy 
and  the  secretarial  profession,  and  a  practical  training  in 
military  activity  and  in  forms  of  courtesy  for  the  gentry. 
With  the  decay  of  feudalism  and  chivalry,  the  Renaissance 
added  the  literary  element  to  the  education  of  the  nobles  and 
gentry  and  enlarged  this  group  capable  of  attaining  a  literary 
education  to  include  not  only  all  the  gentry,  but  even  selected 
boys  of  the  burgher  or  of  the  poorer  classes.  It  seems  probable 
that  this  proffered  opportunity  to  the  middle  and  lower  classes, 
received  with  enthusiastic  approval  in  the  early  Renaissance, 
later  on  came  to  be  viewed  with  disappointment  or  with  indiffer- 
ence by  the  burgher  class.  It  was  expensive ;  it  consumed  long 
years ;  it  was  of  direct  value  only  in  limited  spheres  ;  especially 
in  commercial  fields,  with  the  development  of  the  vernacular, 


38  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

its  use  declined  much  earlier  than  in  other  phases  of  social 
activity. 

But  the  Reformation  cooperated  with  the  Renaissance  in 
fostering  the  linguistic  type  of  education.  Literary  and 
textual  studies  came  to  have  unique  importance  because  of 
their  bearing  on  religious  belief.  Scholastic  ability,  fostered 
by  grammatical  and  rhetorical  as  well  as  by  dialectic  studies, 
was  thus  developed.  A  general  dissemination  of  literary 
ability  now  became  a  thing  to  be  desired.  The  ideal  of  life 
as  a  discipline  held  by  the  religious  leaders  coincided  with  both 
the  concept  of  education  and  the  actual  practices  of  the  school. 

Numerous  formulations  of  the  aim  of  these  schools  are  to 
be  found  in  the  literature  of  the  time.  Practically  all  of  them 
agree  in  including  the  elements .  of  knowledge,  piety,  and 
eloquence.  The  first  indicated  an  ability  to  read,  write,  and 
speak  the  Latin  language  and  perhaps  a  knowledge  of  the 
content  of  Latin  literature ;  by  piety  was  meant  a  familiarity 
with  the  Scriptures,  the  catechism,  credal  forms,  and  eccle- 
siastical ceremonies,  all  gained  more  or  less  directly  through 
the  school;  by  eloquence  was  meant  an  ability  to  use  the 
Latin  language  effectively  in  public  activities. 

Number  and  Type  of  Schools.  —  As  a  general  result  of  the 
Renaissance-Reformation  the  control  as  well  as  the  character 
of  the  secondary  school  was  changed,  and  the  number  of  these 
schools  greatly  increased. 

In  most  continental  countries,  at  least  in  occasional  in- 
stances, municipalities  had  assumed  the  support  of  secondary 
schools  and  had  acquired  substantial  control.  In  England 
control  by  trusteeship,  of  fellows,  usually  ecclesiastics,  was 
the  common  form.  In  numerous  instances  gilds  had  es- 
tablished such  institutions.  But  the  commoner  form  was  that 
of  the  cathedral  or  collegiate  church,  of  chantry  foundation, 
or  of  monastic  order.  In  all  cases  the  church  claimed  the 
right  of  licensing  teachers  and  usually  the  right  of  visitation. 
In  substantially  all  cases  it  made  good  its  claim. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        39 

The  humanistic  school  of  the  early  Renaissance  was  attached 
to  the  court  of  a  royal  or  noble  patron,  or  was  held  in  the 
home  of  the  humanist  scholar,  as  in  the  cases  of  Barzizza  and 
Guarino.  The  early  ones  in  Germany  were  under  municipal 
or  noble  patronage,  as  were  some  in  France.  In  England  the 
typical  form  continued  to  be  that  of  control  by  independent 
boards  of  feoffees,  fellows,  or  tutors. 

During  the  Reformation  period  those  of  Germany  were 
developed  into  state  systems,  beginning  with  Saxony  in  1528. 
The  free  cities  continued  as  patrons  of  these  schools,  and 
in  the  state  systems  the  municipalities  were  largely  respon- 
sible for  support  and  the  church  for  supervision.  In  the 
Calvinistic  countries  —  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  Scotland 
—  church  and  state  cooperated.  The  provisions  for  these 
schools  are  usually  found  in  ecclesiastical  ordinances.  The 
English  system  of  control  underwent  but  little  change,  though 
there  was  much  destruction  attending  the  Reformation ;  and 
in  the  subsequent  period  there  were  many  new  foundations  or 
refoundations  by  private  patrons  and  by  monarchs. 

It  is  contended  that  the  facilities  for  education  during  the 
sixteenth  century  were  greater  than  they  were  until  very 
recent  times.  Mr.  Leach  in  his  study  of  the  grammar  schools 
of  England  in  the  sixteenth  century  estimates  that  in  1546 
there  were  at  least  300  such  schools.  He  indicates  the  rec- 
ords of  fully  200.  The  population  of  England  at  that  time 
is  estimated  at  2,500,000.  This  estimate  would  give  one 
grammar  school  for  every  8300  inhabitants.  In  1865  the 
Parliamentary  School  Inquiry  Commission  found  830  second- 
ary schools  of  all  grades,  which  would  give  one  school  for 
23,250  inhabitants. 

In  Germany,  Professor  Mertz  found  342  Latin  schools  in 
the  German  states  during  the  sixteenth  century.  According 
to  the  estimated  population  of  Germany  at  this  time,  Germany 
possessed  one  Latin  school  for  every  nine  or  ten  thousand 
inhabitants.  In  1910  there  were  371  gymnasia  and  pro- 


40  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

gymnasia  in  Prussia  with  population  of  37,200,000,  or  one  for 
every  100,000  inhabitants. 

Curriculum  of  the  Latin  Grammar  Schools.  —  An  abundance 
of  evidence  concerning  the  course  of  study  of  the  Latin  schools 
drawn  from  widely  divergent  areas  is  available.  The  most 
striking  characteristics  of  these  courses  of  study  are  their 
similarity  and  their  narrowness  or  intensity.  Brinsley  in  his 
Ludus  LUerarius  (1612)  refers  to  the  universal  neglect  of 
arithmetic  in  these  schools :  "  Insomuch,  as  when  they  (the 
people)  hear  the  chapters  named  in  the  church,  many  of  them 
cannot  turn  to  them,  much  less  to  the  verse.  .  .  .  You  shall 
have  scholars,  almost  ready  to  go  to  the  University,  who  yet 
can  hardly  tell  you  the  numbers  of  pages,  sections,  chapters, 
or  other  divisions  in  their  books,  to  find  what  they  should." 
And  almost  as  neglected  is  the  art  of  \vriting.  In  the  same 
treatise  he  says :  "  You  shall  find  very  few  good  writers  in 
Grammar  schools ;  unless  either  they  have  been  taught  by 
scriveners,  or  be  themselves  marvelous  apt  hereunto,  and 
very  rare,  or  where  the  master  doth  apply  himself  chiefly  to 
teach  to  write." 

If  this  was  the  case  concerning  the  two  practical  subjects 
of  most  immediate  value  and  availability,  no  further  question 
needs  to  be  raised  concerning  subjects  as  yet  hardly  possessing 
an  organized  form.  Many  of  these  advocates  would  rule  out 
Greek ;  many  would  add  it.  The  vernacular  has  a  place  from 
the  method  point  of  view,  but  not  as  a  recognized  part  of  the 
course  of  study. 

Sturm's  curriculum  at  Strassburg  in  1565  was  as  follows: 

zoth  Class  :  Latin  alphabet ;   reading. 

pth  Class  :  declensions ;  conjugations ;  irregular  forms ; 
vocabulary  of  common  speech. 

8th  Class :  Latin  syntax ;  Epistles  of  Cicero  with  gram- 
matical construction  ;  exercises  in  style. 

7th  Class :  Latin  syntax ;  Epistles  of  Cicero ;  exercises 
in  style ;  translation  of  catechism  into  Latin. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        41 

6th  Class :  Epistles  of  Cicero ;  Martial ;  Horace ;  cate- 
chism ;  Hieronymus ;  begin  Greek. 

5th  Class :  Versification;  Cicero;  Vergil,  Eclogues;  Dona- 
tus,  ex  tempore  translation;  Pauline  Epistles;  Greek. 

4th  Class  :    Cicero ;   Horace ;    Greek ;    Pauline  Epistles. 

3d  Class :  Latin  treatises  on  rhetoric ;  Demosthenes ; 
Homer;  Pauline  Epistles;  double  translations,  Greek  and 
Latin ;  Terence  and  Plautus  to  be  acted. 

2d  Class :  Comparison  of  Latin  and  Greek  authors ; 
logic;  rhetoric;  Epistle  to  Romans;  acting  of  Aristophanes, 
Euripides,  Sophocles,  Terence,  and  Plautus. 

ist  Class :  logic,  rhetoric,  and  oratory  in  Latin  and  Greek; 
with  more  intensive  study  of  above  authors. 

The  curriculum  of  the  Protestant  School  at  Geneva,  the 
College  de  la  Rive,  1559,  was  as  follows : 

Classis  VII.  In  this  class  the  pupils  will  learn  the  letters, 
and  write  them  to  form  syllables,  using  a  Latin-French  read- 
ing book.  Reading  French,  and  afterwards  Latin  from  a 
French-Latin  catechism :  drawing,  and  writing  letters  of  the 
alphabet. 

VI.  Declensions  and  conjugations  are  begun.  Parts  of 
speech  learnt  in  French'  and  Latin  :  more  practice  in  hand- 
writing :  easy  Latin  sentences  learnt  orally  and  repeated  as 
practice  in  conversation. 

V.  Parts  of  speech  finished :  elements  of  syntax :  the 
Eclogues  of  Vergil  read :  Latin  composition :  Latin  and 
French  employed  side  by  side. 

IV.  Latin  syntax  continued.  Cicero's  Letters  begun  ;  com- 
position exercises  are  based  on  these.  Prosody,  with  reading 
of  Ovid.  Greek  begun :  declension  and  conjugation ;  ele- 
mentary construing. 

III.  Greek  grammar  systematically  learnt.  Cicero,  Letters, 
De  Amicitia,  DC  Scncctiite:  these  two  treatises  to  be  turned 
into  Greek.  The  sEncid,  Caesar  and  Isocrates  read. 

II.  Chief  stress  laid  upon  reading  :  Livy,  Xenophon,  Polyb- 
ius,  Herodian,  and  Homer.  Logic  begun :  propositions, 
syllogism :  to  be  illustrated  from  Cicero's  Orations.  Once 
a  week  the  Gospel  narrative  in  Greek. 


42  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

I.  Melanchthon's  Logic;  the  elements  of  rhetoric  in  con- 
nection with  it;  and  elocution.  Cicero's  Orations:  De- 
mosthenes (the  Olynthiacs  and  Philippics}.  Homer  and 
Vergil  also  analyzed  for  rhetorical  purposes.  Two  original 
"  declamationes  "  are  prepared  monthly.  Once  a  week  an 
Epistle  of  St.  Paul  or  other  apostle  is  read  in  Greek. 

The  curriculum  of  the  College  de  Guyenne  at  Bordeaux 
in  1572  was  as  follows: 

loth  Class:  alphabet;  Pater  Noster;  psalms;  Ave  Maria; 
Libellus  Puerulorum  (a  little  summary  of  inflections  of  regu- 
lar nouns  and  verbs). 

gth  Class :  the  two  manuals  referred  to  above,  Cato's 
Disticha ;  Cordiers  Exempla. 

8th  Class:    Cicero's  Letters;    Cordiers  Colloqida;  Terence. 

yth  Class :   Cicero's  Letters ;  Latin  grammar,  and  as  above. 

6th  Class :   mainly  as  above. 

5th  Class  :   as  above ;   Terence ;    Ovid. 

4th  Class:  Cicero,  Orations;  Erasmus,  DeCopia;  Ovid; 
composition,  Greek. 

3d  Class  :  Cicero ;  Terence ;  Ovid  ;  composition ;  dis- 
putation. 

2d  Class  :  Cicero  ;  Ovid  ;  Vergil ;  Lucan  ;  composition, 
declamation ;  rhetoric. 

ist  Class  :  as  above  ;  Quintilian  ;  Livy  ;  Seneca  ;  Justin  ; 
Eutropius  ;  Vergil ;  Lucan ;  Juvenal ;  Horace  ;  and  a  variety 
of  other  classical  and  patristi-c  authors. 

Method  of  the  Grammar  Schools.  —  As  there  was  a 
general  conformity  and  an  elaboration  of  curriculum,  so 
was  there  of  method  also.  The  teaching  of  Latin  attained 
a  perfection,  or  at  least  an  efficiency,  which  it  has  not  altogether 
lost.  No  other  subject  was  adequately  organized.  The 
natural  sciences  were  not  even  recognized  by  the  schools ; 
consequently  they  developed  no  method.  The  literature  on 
method  is  as  extensive  as  that  on  the  curriculum.  But  only 
the  essential  characteristics  need  to  be  enumerated  here.  The 
curricula  abstracted  above  indicate  thoroughness,  procedure 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        43 

by  slow  steps  and  brief  lessons,  frequent  reviews,  and  above 
all  else  an  actual  use  of  the  forms  of  the  Latin  language  in 
conversation,  in  writing,  and  in  formal  speech  such  as  dec- 
lamation and  oration. 

The  writings  of  Erasmus,  of  Melanchthon,  of  Brinsley,  of 
Sturm,  of  Ascham,  of  Hoole,  of  Corderius,  of  Vives,  and  of  a 
great  number  of  others  give  us  details  of  method  and  many 
suggestions  pertinent  and  valuable  for  the  teacher  of 
languages  even  at  the  present  time.  And  yet  it  is  evident 
that  in  the  teaching  of  the  alphabet  and  of  the  first  steps  in 
reading,  they  made  no  progress ;  that  grammatical  forms 
were  taught  in  the  barren  deductive  way ;  that  dreary  me- 
moriter  work  occupied  a  large  portion  of  the  school  time. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  extensive  use  of  colloquies  gave  a 
vitality  to  the  subject  which  it  has  not  possessed  in  later  cen- 
turies. Declamations  and  orations  as  well  as  ordinary  con- 
versation made  it  a  living  speech  and  gave  the  student  power 
through  use.  The  Latin  play,  of  either  classic  or  contemporary 
origin,  gave  interest  and  facility  in  speech.  Double  transla- 
tion and  other  methods  brought  in  the  use  of  the  vernacular, 
secured  valuable  training  in  its  use,  assisted  in  giving  it  liter- 
ary form,  and  ultimately  resulted  in  giving  it  a  place  in  the 
curriculum.  Erasmus  states  the  best  contemporary  view  of 
method  as  follows : 

"  But  I  must  make  my  conviction  clear  that,  whilst  a 
knowledge  of  the  rules  of  accidence  and  syntax  is  most  neces- 
sary to  every  student,  still  they  should  be  as  few,  as  simple, 
and  as  carefully  framed  as  possible.  I  have  no  patience  with 
the  stupidity  of  the  average  teacher  of  grammar  who  wastes 
precious  years  in  hammering  rules  into  children's  heads. 
For  it  is  not  by  learning  rules  that  we  acquire  the  power  of 
speaking  a  language,  but  by  daily  intercourse  with  those 
accustomed  to  express  themselves  with  'exactness  and  re- 
finement, and  by  the  copious  reading  of  the  best  authors.  .  .  . 
Some  proficiency  in  expression  being  thus  attained  the  student 
devotes  his  attention  to  the  content  of  the  ancient  literature. 


44  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  in  reading  an  author  for  purposes 
of  vocabulary  and  style  the  student  cannot  fail  to  gather 
something  besides.  But  I  have  in  my  mind  much  more  than 
this  when  I  speak  of  studying  'content.'  For  I  affirm  that 
with  slight  qualification  the  whole  of  attainable  knowledge 
lies  inclosed  within  the  literary  monuments  of  ancient  Greece. 
This  great  inheritance  I  will  compare  to  a  limpid  spring  of 
whose  undefiled  waters  it  behooves  all  who  truly  thirst  to 
drink  and  be  restored.  .  .  . 

"  In  reading  the  authors  above  mentioned  for  the  purposes 
of  vocabulary,  ornament,  and  style,  you  can  have  no  better 
guide  than  Lorenzo  Valla.  His  Elegantice  will  show  you 
what  to  look  for  and  note  down  in  your  Latin  reading.  But 
do  not  merely  echo  his  rules ;  make  headings  for  yourself  as 
well.  Refer  also  to  Donatus  and  Diomedes  for  syntax. 
Rules  of  prosody,  and  the  rudiments  of  rhetoric,  such  as  the 
method  of  direct  statement,  of  proof,  of  ornament,  of  ex- 
pansion, of  transition,  are  important  both  for  the  intelligent 
study  of  authors  and  for  composition.  Such  grounding  in 
grammar  and  in  style  will  enable  you  to  note  with  precision 
such  matters  as  these :  an  unusual  word,  archaisms,  and  in- 
novations, ingenuity  in  handling  material,  distinction  of 
style,  historical  or  moral  instances,  proverbial  expressions : 
the  notebook  being  ready  to  hand  to  record  them.  Notes 
of  this  kind  should  not  be  jotted  down  at  haphazard,  but 
carefully  devised  so  as  to  recall  to  the  mind  the  pith  of  what  is 
read." 

Unfortunately  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  school- 
masters did  not  have  as  clear  an  insight  as  did  the  great 
humanist,  and  that  with  them  the  means  all  too  frequently 
became  the  end.  The  too  common  practice  seems  to  have 
been  that  condemned  in  the  second  sentence  of  the  above 
quotation. 

THE  VARIANT  TYPE  :    THE  REALISTIC   SCHOOL.  - 
The  variant  type  was  more  commonly  known  as  the  academy, 
though  the  name  "  school  for  nobles  "  was  also  used.     Various 
other  local  titles  might  be  used,  as  Edelschulen,  Furstenschulen, 
seminaries,    pcdagogia,    Particularschulen,    Modistenschulen. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        45 

Characterized  by  a  broader  and  far  more  liberal  curriculum, 
these  schools  attempted  to  prepare  the  children  of  the  upper 
classes  of  society  for  the  multiform  duties  of  their  stations. 
Rejecting  the  theory  of  the  Latin  grammar  schools  that  a 
narrow  linguistic  discipline  afforded  a  general  training  suffi- 
cient for  all  needs,  they  offered  a  study  of  the  activities  directly 
involved. 

Consequently  it  is  through  this  type  of  schools,  less  stable 
by  far  than  the  dominant  type,  that  those  variations  have 
come  which  have  permitted  the  development  of  educational 
ideas  and  practices.  This  type  of  education  did  not  always 
crystallize  into  schools.  In  fact  for  a  long  period  its  adherents 
rejected  the  school  and  preferred  the  tutor  or  some  other  mod- 
ification of  the  family  relationship.  But  through  this  variable 
type,  no  matter  what  particular  shape  it  took,  came  the  in- 
troduction of  the  modern  languages,  the  natural  sciences,  and 
the  practical  semi-  or  non-professional  studies  which  would 
pertain  to  the  life  of  a  gentleman.  Consequently  through 
the  same  source  there  arose  much  that  made  for  the  better- 
ment of  method,  for  the  broadening  of  the  concept  of  educa- 
tion, and  for  the  growing  social  significance  of  education. 

Organization  of  the  New  Type  of  Education.  —  While  this 
new  conception  of  education  produced  the  variety  of  schools 
indicated  above,  the  more  general  attitude  of  the  adherents 
of  this  "  realistic  "  view  was  in  favor  of  the  tutorial  system. 
In  its  earlier  form  this  education  was  avowedly  for  the  chosen 
few  of  the  aristocratic  class.  Its  aim  was  to  produce  men  of 
the  world,  accomplished  in  those  arts  of  government  and 
management  of  practical  affairs  valuable  to  the  gentry  — 
those  possessing  wealth,  entitled  to  the  positions  of  influence 
in  society,  and  controlling  its  institutions.  It  had  little  regard 
for  the  scholar,  less  for  the  pedant,  little  for  schools,  and  none 
at  all  for  schoolmasters. 

The  tutor,  or  a  series  of  tutors,  must  possess  these  accom- 
plishments and  impart  them  to  his  pupils.  Besides  the  tutorial 


46  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

instruction  in  the  home  much  was  attained  through  attachment 
to  courts  of  nobles  or  entourages  of  officials  or  landed  gentry. 
Much  more  was  accomplished  through  travel.  The  grand 
tour  was  a  part  of  the  education  of  every  such  favored  youth. 
Thus  were  the  modern  languages  acquired,  as  well  as  a  knowl- 
edge of  history,  geography,  the  popular  aspects  of  science 
and  its  practical  applications.  Agriculture,  the  art  of  fortifica- 
tion and  of  military  affairs,  some  knowledge  of  government 
and  of  foreign  relations,  were  presumed  to  be  acquired.  Ex- 
tensive reading  in  the  modern  languages  took  the  place  of  pro- 
longed study  of  the  classics.  All  this  was  to  be  accomplished 
through  the  tutor.  When  we  recall  that  Vittorino,  /Eneas 
Sylvius,  Ascham,  Locke,  Herbart,  Froebel,  were  tutors  and 
that  a  large  number  of  others  who  wrote  on  education,  as  well 
as  the  prominent  men  of  affairs  throughout  the  centuries,  were 
products  of  this  type  of  education,  its  significance  can  be 
realized.  In  time,  however,  this  educational  procedure  re- 
ceived a  more  definite  institutional  embodiment.  The  non- 
conformist academies  of  England  and  the  real  schools  of  Ger- 
many are  the  most  important  of  these. 

The  English  Academies.  —  In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  drew  up  plans  for  an  Elizabethan 
Academy,  for  the  instruction  of  the  youth  of  the  court  and 
the  gentry.  Modern  languages  were  to  replace  the  classics ; 
mathematics  in  all  its  practical  application  to  navigation, 
surveying,  and  military  affairs  was  given  prominent  place ; 
government,  management  of  estates,  familiarity  with  public 
affairs,  were  to  receive  attention ;  the  natural  sciences  were 
stressed. 

A  century  later  John  Milton  again  sketched  an  academy  in 
his  Tractate  on  Education.  The  prodigious  range  of  learning 
here  advocated  as  essential  was  clearly  beyond  ordinary  at- 
tainment, but  it  emphasized  the  limitations  of  the  accepted 
type.  De  Foe  in  1697  extended  the  scope  of  the  idea,  and  ad- 
vocated an  academy  for  the  education  of  women. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        47 

Meanwhile  Milton's  idea  was  attaining  realization,  though 
in  a  modest  form.  After  the  restoration  of  the  Stuart  monarchy 
(1661)  nonconformists  were  excluded  from  English  public 
schools  and  universities.  This  created  a  large  body  of  students, 
not  only  desiring  new  institutions,  but  interested  in  a  type  of 
education  that  was  a  variant  from  the  old.  The  Act  of  Uni- 
formity (1662)  drove  nearly  2000  clergymen  from  their  parishes. 
These  furnished  a  ready  supply  of  teachers.  Further  repres- 
sive laws  made  it  necessary  that  such  work  of  instruction  as 
would  bring  these  two  classes  together  should  be  done  furtively. 
Hence  much  of  it  was  in  the  tutorial  form.  But  from  these 
conditions  emerged  a  number  of  well-organized  institutions 
termed  academies.  Their  attendance  was  small,  but  their 
product  was  of  high  quality. 

The  number  of  these  institutions  which  attained  note  was 
considerable,  but  in  the  nature  of  the  case  they  could  not  be 
welded  into  a  system.  English  educational  thought  and  in- 
tellectual life  was  not  ripe  for  them  as  a  permanent  type. 
While  they  flourished  for  a  hundred  years,  the  eighteenth 
century  tended  to  reduce  all  to  a  dead  level  of  orthodoxy  and 
mediocrity.  Yet  they  were  able  to  pass  on  the  torch  of  in- 
spiration to  America,  and  in  England  to  keep  the  spark  alive 
into  the  early  nineteenth  century  with  its  educational  awaken- 
ing. 

The  German  Realscliulcn.  —  The  Furstcnschiilcn  in  several 
of  the  German  states  persisted  through  this  period.  In  fact 
some  still  flourish  in  the  form  of  agricultural  schools,  of  value 
to  the  landed  gentry.  But  with  the  dominance  of  French 
culture  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  these  so- 
called  Rittcracadcmien  became  more  and  more  artificial  and 
exclusive,  and  with  the  decline  of  the  French  influence,  the 
new  type  of  German  schools,  either  gymnasium  or  real  school, 
took  their  place.  The  real  school  was  the  embodiment  of 
this  type  of  education  for  the  great  middle  classes.  In  fact 
it  originated  in  the  attempt  to  adapt  education  to  the  lower 


48  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

classes.  The  pietist  Francke  in  the  last  decade  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  founded  a  series  of  institutions  centered  about 
an  orphan  asylum  in  Halle.  His  effort  was  to  give  these 
orphan  children  an  education  of  literary  merit  which  at  the 
same  time  would  assist  them  in  solving  the  practical  problems 
in  life.  Industrial  processes,  printing,  training  in  teaching, 
a  practical  interpretation  of  the  sciences,  and  a  rational 
use  of  the  common  branches  were  the  chief  means  which  he 
employed.  The  institution  became  the  center  of  educational 
advance  in  Germany.  In  1739  one  of  his  pupils  advocated 
a  plan  for  the  reorganization  of  a  government  school  then 
under  way,  entitling  the  reformed  institution  "  A  Mathemat- 
ical, Mechanical  and  Agricultural  Real  School."  This  is  said 
to  be  the  earliest  use  of  this  term.  Another  pupil,  Hecker,  in 
1747,  opened  the  first  real  school  in  Berlin  in  coordination 
with  a  German  school  and  a  Latin  school.  Its  similarity  to 
Franklin's  plan,  then  in  process  of  realization  at  Philadelphia, 
is  very  striking.  Other  schools  of  this  type  followed.  For 
half  a  century,  however,  there  was  little  difference  between 
the  programs  of  this  type  and  those  of  the  Latin  gymnasia, 
except  that  a  few  realistic  subjects  were  added.  But  in  the 
early  nineteenth  century,  with  the  strengthening  of  the  classical 
studies  and  the  requirement  of  Greek,  the  realistic  subjects 
were  minimized  and  the  value  of  this  type  of  education  for 
the  common  people  was  greatly  decreased.  It  was  necessary 
that  proper  technical  instruction  or  the  basis  for  it  be  given 
in  a  special  institution.  Consequently  the  real  schools  with 
a  more  distinctive  program  multiplied. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
that  the  real  schools  received  full  state  recognition.  By  the 
Prussian  regulations  of  1859  the  real  schools  of  the  first  rank, 
requiring  four  years  of  Latin  but  no  Greek,  were  accepted  as 
state  schools.  Those  of  lower  rank  were  dependent  on  the 
local  communities.  The  demands  of  the  industrial  and  com- 
mercial communities  were  not  fully  met  until  1882  with  the 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        49 

Realgymnasium,  the  Obcrrealschule,  and  the  Realschule.  Sub- 
sequent development  is  given  in  the  following  chapter. 

The  Influence  on  the  Curriculum.  —  The  very  nature  of 
this  movement  precluded  any  definite  course  of  study.  The 
point  of  view  demanded  a  training  in  all  those  subjects  which 
related  to  the  life  activities  of  the  pupil. 

The  widest  possible  range  of  topics  is  suggested.  Milton 
enumerates  Latin,  Greek,  eloquence  (rhetoric),  religion,  arith- 
metic, geometry,  agriculture,  geography  (maps  and  globes), 
natural  philosophy,  physiology,  astronomy,  trigonometry, 
fortification,  architecture,  "  engineering  or  navigation," 
physics,  poetry  and  literature,  moral  philosophy,  law  and 
government,  economics,  politics,  Italian,  Hebrew,  and  possibly 
Chaldee,  history,  logic,  and  a  great  variety  of  physical  exercises. 

The  actual  program  of  an  eighteenth-century  English 
Academy  included  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  the  Scriptures, 
logic,  history,  geography,  philosophy  (metaphysics),  divinity, 
algebra,  geometry. 

Hecker's  Berlin  Realschule,  later  known  as  a  Pedagogium 
and  after  1797  as  the  Friedrich  Wilhelm  Gymnasium,  con- 
tained in  its  program  of  studies,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  German, 
French,  religion,  drawing,  geography,  arithmetic,  algebra, 
geometry,  trigonometry,  history,  natural  history  (botany, 
mineralogy),  physics,  and  philosophy. 

Illustrative  curricula  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  But 
the  principle  underlying  the  curriculum  in  the  views  of 
these  educators  is  evident ;  all  the  subjects  then  existing  in 
an  organized  form  were  to  be  pursued.  In  the  cases  of  the 
curricula  given,  the  student  body  was  a  highly  selected  one, 
devoting  at  least  nine  years  to  the  course  outlined. 

Locke,  De  Foe,  and  practically  all  the  writers  on  education 
of  this  period  who  are  not  speaking  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  Latin  schoolmaster  emphasize  a  list  quite  as  extensive. 
Obviously  such  a  program  is  not  intended  for  every  child,  but 
as  Milton  says  only  for  those  "  who  can  draw  the  long  bow." 


50  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Nor  in  every  case  were  all  of  the  subjects  to  be  taken  by  every 
child  favored  with  such  an  education.  But  in  all  cases  it  is 
the  content  subjects  which  are  emphasized  and  especially 
those  which  have  direct  bearing  on  life.  The  organization 
of  these  into  a  school  procedure  was  the  result  of  a  century 
more  of  experience. 

Influence  on  Method.  —  Method  was  no  better  formulated 
than  the  course  of  study.  But  this  very  freedom  gave  it 
vitality  and  permitted  development.  Locke  disposes  of 
this  question,  as  most  of  this  group  would,  in  a  very  summary 
manner.  "  Learning  may  be  had  into  the  bargain,  and  that, 
as  I  think,  at  a  very  easy  rate  by  methods  that  may  be  thought 
on."  The  essential  point  of  method  was  that  knowledge  was 
for  use  and  learning  was  to  be  largely  by  practice.  To  quote 
Locke  again,  speaking  of  this  tutorial  type  of  education, 
"  This  method  of  teaching  children  by  a  repeated  practice,  and 
the  same  action  done  over  and  over  again,  under  the  eye  and 
direction  of  the  tutor,  till  they  have  got  the  habit  of  doing  it 
well,  and  not  by  relying  on  rules  trusted  to  their  memories, 
has  so  many  advantages,  which  way  soever  we  consider  it, 
that  I  cannot  but  wonder  (if  ill  customs  could  be  wondered  at 
in  any  thing)  how  it  could  possibly  be  so  much  neglected." 

Montaigne  repeats  this  view  in  many  forms.  "  A  boy  should 
not  so  much  memorize  his  lesson  as  practice  it.  Let  him  re- 
peat it  in  his  actions."  Perhaps  the  most  famous  phrasing  of 
this  view  is  his  saying :  "  To  know  by  heart  is  not  to  know 
at  all ;  it  is  simply  to  keep  what  6ne  has  committed  to  his 
memory.  What  a  man  knows  directly,  that  will  he  dispose  of 
without  turning  to  his  book  or  looking  to  his  pattern." 

The  tutor,  usually  unconscious  of  their  philosophical 
basis,  attempted  to  apply  in  an  informal  way  the  principles 
of  learning  formulated  by  Bacon  and  Locke.  When  schools 
of  this  type  were  organized,  they  attempted  to  do  the  same 
thing  consciously.  However,  the  teacher  with  little  insight 
too  frequently  substituted  an  observation  of  natural  phe- 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education         51 

nomena  or  a  verbal  familiarity  with  them  for  that  knowledge 
which  was  demanded  by  the  leader  of  thought.  Comenius 
viewed  educational  method  from  this  standpoint,  though  he 
was  forced  by  circumstances  to  make  his  application  chiefly 
to  the  study  of  Latin.  The  Philanthropinists,  led  by  Basedow, 
made  a  more  systematic  attempt  to  reduce  the  new  method 
to  school  procedure. 

The  leading  educational  reformers,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi, 
Fellenberg,  and  Froebel,  besides  those  previously  mentioned, 
are  exponents  of  some  phase  of  this  variant  type  of  secondary 
education. 

THE  LATIN  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  IN  THE  AMERICAN 
COLONIES.  —  The  Latin  grammar  school  of  Renaissance-Ref- 
ormation Europe  was  transplanted  bodily  to  the  American  col- 
onies. In  all  but  one  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  that  of  Georgia, 
such  schools  were  founded.  The  earliest  schools  in  most  of  the 
colonies  were  of  this  type.  The  first  attempt  at  a  school  in 
the  thirteen  colonies  was  assisted  by  a  contribution  from  a 
shipload  of  merchants  from  the  East  Indies  in  1621,  and 
hence  was  named  the  East  India  School.  The  Virginia  Com- 
pany proposed  a  Latin  grammar  school,  but  the  Indian 
subjects  of  the  Company  disposed  otherwise,  and  the  massacre 
of  1622  ended  this  attempt. 

So  far  as  extant  records  indicate,  the  first  successful  attempt, 
resulting  in  the  grammar  school  at  Boston  in  1635,  was  of  the 
Latin  type.  At  least  this  school  is  the  oldest  permanent 
foundation.  In  the  same  year  a  Virginian  settler  by  the  name 
of  Syms,  following  laudable  English  custom,  left  his  estate  in 
land  and  cattle  to  found  a  free  school.  But  it  was  seven  years 
before  the  grant  was  confirmed  by  the  legislature.  Subsequent 
records  refer  to  the  school  as  in  operation,  and  it  is  claimed 
that  some  of  this  grant  enters  into  the  permanent  funds  of  an 
existing  institution.  Several  other  bequests  of  this  kind 
occurred  in  the  southern  colonies.  Most  of  the  resulting 
foundations  were  of  an  ephemeral  character. 


52  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

In  Massachusetts,  where  also  numerous  bequests  of  this 
character  were  made,  the  gifts  were  used  to  supplement 
schools  established  by  the  towns.  Consequently  the  founda- 
tions were  of  a  far  more  substantial  character.  The  most 
important  of  these  private  foundations  was  made  by  Edward 
Hopkins,  a  London  merchant  who  in  1657  bequeathed  his 
estate  to  found  a  system  of  such  schools  for  Connecticut. 
Schools  at  Hartford,  Hadley,  and  New  Haven  resulted.  The 
Hopkins  Grammar  School  of  New  Haven  still  flourishes. 

In  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  the  towns  built  up  such 
schools.  The  early  records  of  many  of  these  towns  indicate 
a  wonderful  devotion  on  the  part  of  these  pioneers  to  the  cause 
of  higher  education.  The  sacrifices  which  these  frontier 
communities  would  make  to  maintain  a  Latin  grammar  school 
in  the  face  of  a  desperate  struggle  with  savages,  famine,  and 
hostile  nature  is  indicated  by  the  early  town,  court,  and  tax 
records. 

The  legislative  records  of  the  remaining  colonies  indicate  a 
common  belief  in  the  necessity  of  at  least  one  such  school  in 
each  colony.  In  some  of  them,  however,  as  in  New  York, 
the  mixture  of  population  and  the  dominance  of  commercial 
interests  delayed  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution 
until  well  into  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  several  colonies,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Maryland,  systems  of  such  schools  were  set  up. 
The  unit  area  of  the  Maryland  system  and  ultimately  of  that 
of  Connecticut  was  the  county.  But  the  basis  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts system,  early  copied  by  Connecticut  and  then  by 
New  Hampshire,  was  the  town. 

The  eighteenth  century  records  of  these  New  England 
communities  indicate  that  this  type  of  school  was  ceasing  to 
serve  any  broad  educational  need.  The  struggle  of  most  of 
the  communities  to  keep  the  schools  going,  the  unwillingness 
of  many  to  make  the  attempt,  the  dwindling  attendance,  all 
indicate  a  growing  lack  of  adjustment  between  school  and 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education         53 

actual  social  needs.  By  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  a 
new  type  of  secondary  school  had  arisen,  replacing  the  Latin 
grammar  school,  which  had  all  but  disappeared.  Those  that 
still  remained  were  but  appanages  to  the  colleges  which  had 
sprung  up  meanwhile  in  most  of  the  colonies. 

While  the  colonial  legislative  records  have  much  to  say  con- 
cerning these  schools,  and  there  is  considerable  supplementary 
material  relating  to  their  organization,  evidence  relating  to 
either  curriculum  or  method  is  very  scanty.  Method  is 
indicated  chiefly  by  the  textbooks.  The  Latin  Accidence 
of  Ezekiel  Cheever  shows  no  advance  upon  the  European 
texts.  There  are  entries  in  the  Boston  town  records  of  the 
middle  seventeenth  century  indicating  an  attempt  to  introduce 
Comenian  methods. 

The  curriculum  was  even  narrower  than  those  of  Europe, 
owing  to  the  limiting  circumstances  of  frontier  life.  To  read 
and  write  Latin  and  possibly  to  speak  it  was  the  chief  if  not 
the  sole  aim.  In  instances  the  rudiments  of  Greek  were  added. 
During  the  eighteenth  century,  in  the  commercial  centers, 
some  mathematics  for  purposes  of  navigation  and  surveying 
was  added.  The  requirements  for  admission  to  the  colonial 
colleges  do  not  indicate  any  wider  preparatory  training  until 
after  the  Revolution.  The  broad  scope  proposed  by  Franklin 
for  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  its  preparatory  school 
and  by  Dr.  William  Smith  for  Kings  College  and  its  pre- 
paratory school  do  not  seem  to  have  had  any  permanent 
influence.  The  most  frequent  references  in  colonial  records 
concerning  the  work  of  the  grammar  school  relate  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  such  schools  may  do  the  work  of  the  petty  or 
elementary  school. 

However  circumscribed  their  influence,  these  schools  did 
accomplish  their  great  purpose,  announced  in  the  early  New 
England  legislation,  "  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in 
the  graves  of  our  forefathers  in  church  and  in  common- 
wealth." 


54  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

THE  ACADEMY  IN  AMERICA.  —  The  earliest  proposed 
academy  in  America  was  that  sketched  by  Benjamin  Franklin 
in  1743.  Six  years  later  the  school  began  operation.  The 
educational  ideas  operative  are  clearly  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing statements  from  Franklin's  proposals  : 

"  As  to  their  studies,  it  would  be  well  if  they  could  be 
taught  everything  that  is  useful  and  everything  that  is  orna- 
mental. But  art  is  long  and  their  time  is  short.  It  is  therefore 
proposed,  that  they  learn  those  things  that  are  likely  to  be 
most  useful  and  most  ornamental ;  regard  being  had  to  the 
several  professions  for  which  they  are  intended." 

The  institution  was  organized  in  three  schools,  —  Latin, 
Mathematical,  and  English.  Soon  after  it  grew  into  a  col- 
lege, the  mathematical  school  was  amalgamated  with  the  new 
philosophical  school,  while  the  English  school  fell  into  com- 
parative neglect.  From  the  troublous  time  of  the  American 
Revolution  the  institution  emerged  as  a  university,  with  the 
English  school  still  further  subordinated.  Against  this  sub- 
ordination and  neglect  Franklin  protested,  but  the  academy 
had  in  this  instance  served  its  purpose. 

Meanwhile  the  general  force  producing  the  academies  was 
operative  in  America.  Nonconformity,  which  worked  to  this 
end  in  England,  served  the  same  purpose  in  America,  although 
the  established  church  here  assumed  a  varying  form  in  differ- 
ent localities,  and  although  the  orthodox  school  —  the  Latin 
grammar  school  —  had  never  attained  the  commanding  posi- 
tion which  it  reached  in  all  European  countries.  Through 
the  Great  Awakening,  which  affected  the  middle  and  southern 
colonies  more  than  it  did  Xew  England,  numerous  institutions 
of  this  type  were  instituted.  The  "  Log  College  "  which  pre- 
ceded Princeton,  though  never  given  the  name  of  academy, 
was  practically  such  a  school.  Many  private  institutions  of 
this  type,  some  of  which  assumed  the  name  of  academies, 
sprang  up  during  the  third  quarter  of  the  century.  These 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        55 

all  had  a  meager  and  local  support  and  most  of  them  an 
ephemeral  existence. 

The  institutions  which  gave  standing  to  this  new  type  of 
secondary  schools  were  those  founded  by  the  Phillips  family, 
the  one  at  Andover,  Massachusetts,  in  1778,  the  other  at 
Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  in  1781.  The  purpose  of  these 
schools,  as  stated  in  the  deed  of  gift  of  the  earlier  one,  was 
"  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  public  free  school  or  academy  for 
the  purpose  of  instructing  youth,  not  only  in  English  and 
Latin  grammar,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  those  sciences  wherein 
they  are  commonly  taught ;  but  more  especially  to  learn  them 
the  great  end  and  real  business  of  living."  Further  on,  "  it 
is  again  declared,  that  the  first  and  principal  object  of  this 
Institution  is  the  promotion  of  true  piety  and  virtue ;  the 
second,  instruction  in  the  English,  Latin,  and  Greek  languages, 
together  with  writing,  arithmetic,  music,  and  the  art  of  speak- 
ing ;  the  third,  practical  geometry,  logic,  and  geography  ;  and 
the  fourth,  such  other  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences  or  lan- 
guages, as  opportunity  and  ability  may  hereafter  admit,  and 
as  the  trustees  shall  direct.1' 

During  the  early  national  period  a  number  of  the  states 
faced  with  serious  effort  the  problem  of  national  education. 
Political  views  and  practices  were  as  yet  aristocratic  rather 
than  democratic,  and  the  educational  ideas  were  the  same. 
Consequently  the  efforts  were  directed  chiefly  towards  the 
building  up  of  a  type  of  schools  which  would  provide  for  the 
education  of  select  youth  of  the  better-to-do  strata  of  society, 
giving  them  a  broad  education  in  a  variety  of  subjects.  Edu- 
cation for  the  masses  was,  for  the  most  part,  still  in  the  form 
of  pauper  schooling. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  very  many  similar  institutions  were 
founded,  initiated,  and  partially  supported  by  private  parties. 
Incorporation  by  act  of  legislature  was  given  to  numbers  of 
these  institutions  in  almost  every  state.  In  many  states  the 


56  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

legislature  granted  financial  support.  Sometimes,  as  in  Mary- 
land, this  was  done  by  converting  properties  of  earlier  founda- 
tions to  the  uses  of  these  new  institutions ;  sometimes,  as  in 
Pennsylvania,  by  making  direct  grants  from  the  state  treas- 
ury ;  sometimes,  as  in  New  York,  by  the  establishment  of 
funds  for  the  special  benefit  of  this  type  of  institution.  In 
several  of  these  commonwealths  there  was  thus  built  up  a 
genuine  state  system  of  secondary  schools.  Seldom  did  there 
exist  any  unity  of  plan  or  organization  in  these  systems,  and 
only  in  one  case,  that  of  New  York,  was  there  any  adequate 
central  control  and  supervision. 

In  the  organization  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York  in  1784  and  1787  these  secondary  institutions  were  made 
component  parts  of  the  university.  Grants  of  fixed  sums 
were  early  made  and  in  1813  a  permanent  fund,  known  as  the 
Literature  Fund,  was  established  for  their  encouragement 
and  support.  Thus  an  effective  control  over  expenditures 
and  some  supervision  of  subjects  of  instruction  were  main- 
tained. So  efficient  wras  this  system  that  its  most  flourishing 
period  did  not  pass  until  the  second  or  third  decade  after  the 
Civil  War.  At  times  nearly  250  such  institutions  received 
aid  from  the  state.  In  no  other  state  was  so  extensive  a 
system  developed.  And  in  none  did  such  public  systems  post- 
pone so  long  the  development  of  the  high  school.  In  many 
states,  especially  the  southern  ones,  private  academies  sup- 
plemented these  public  ones  and  postponed  still  further  the 
rise  of  the  high  school. 

The  characteristic  feature  of  organization  in  the  academy 
was  its  private  or  quasi-public  control.  Neither  state  nor 
local  community  exercised  any  control,  except  as  the  state 
might  require  the  teaching  of  certain  subjects  or  the  contribu- 
tion of  a  certain  amount  from  private  sources  before  it  would 
permit  an  institution  to  share  in  the  distribution  of  general 
funds.  Many  of  these  institutions  were  merely  private  ad- 
venture schools.  Many  were  supported  or  controlled  or 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        57 

supervised  by  religious  denominations.  The  stronger  ones 
were  usually  under  the  control  of  self-perpetuating  bodies  of 
trustees. 

Many  of  the  stronger  academies  developed  into  colleges  and 
retained  their  original  form  of  organization.  In  the  majority 
of  cases  they  died  out  with  the  development  of  a  more  popular 
form  of  education  meeting  the  same  needs.  In  some  instances 
they  grew  into  normal  schools.  The  New  York  state  system 
of  normal  schools  had  for  the  most  part  such  an  origin.  In  a 
substantial  number  of  cases,  academies  developed  directly 
into  high  schools.  Thus  the  academies  in  Maryland  con- 
tributed to  the  high  school,  as  in  New  York  they  did  to  the 
normal  school  system. 

While  it  is  not  possible  to  give  any  quantitative  estimate 
of  the  extent  of  the  academy  system,  it  is  evident  that  these 
schools-  existed  in  great  numbers,  and  indeed  were  adequate 
to  the  needs  of  the  population  so  far  as  the  opportunity  for 
education  is  concerned. 

Curriculum  and  Method.  —  The  characteristic  educational 
feature  of  the  academies  was  the  breadth  of  the  curriculum. 
As  most  of  them  depended  for  their  chief  support,  even 
their  very  existence,  upon  large  attendance  and  popular 
approval,  they  gave  what  people  demanded.  Consequently 
some  were  little  more  than  advanced  elementary  schools  and 
many,  probably  the  great  majority,  included  such  subjects 
in  their  offering.  The  reaction  against  the  Latin  grammar 
school  and  the  growth  of  democracy  coincided  with  the  rapid 
development  of  the  modern  sciences  and  the  formulation  of  a 
great  variety  of  new  subjects  of  study.  Many  of  the  stronger' 
of  these  institutions  comprised  two  schools,  the  classical  and 
the  English.  Even  in  the  classical  course  of  the  Phillips 
Academies,  geography,  arithmetic,  English  grammar  and 
declamation,  algebra,  and  geometry  were  required  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  Phillips  Andover  maintained  for  a 
time  during  the  third  decade  of  the  century  not  only  an  Eng- 


58  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

lish  school,  but  also  a  department  for  the  training  of  teachers. 
The  natural  sciences  received  much  attention.  This  fact 
and  the  emphasis  on  the  vernacular  language  and  literature 
were  the  determining  features.  The  extent  to  which  the 
curriculum  developed  is  indicated  by  the  following  list  of  sub- 
jects reported  by  institutions  of  this  type  to  the  Regents  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1837  :  arithmetic, 
algebra,  architecture,  astronomy,  botany,  bookkeeping,  Bib- 
lical antiquities,  biography,  chemistry,  composition,  conic 
sections,  constitution  of  the  United  States,  constitution  of 
New  York,  elements  of  criticism,  declamation,  drawing, 
dialing,  English  grammar,  evidences  of  Christianity,  em- 
broidery, civil  engineering,  extemporaneous  speaking,  French, 
geography,  physical  geography,  geology,  plane  geometry, 
analytic  geometry,  Greek,  Grecian  antiquities,  German, 
general  history,  history  of  the  United  States,  history  of  New 
York,  Hebrew,  Italian,  Latin,  law  (constitutional,  select  revised 
statutes,  criminal  and  mercantile,  Blackstone's  Commentaries), 
logic,  leveling,  logarithms,  vocal  music,  instrumental  music, 
mapping,  mensuration,  mineralogy,  mythology,  natural  his- 
tory, navigation,  nautical  astronomy,  natural  theology,  or- 
thography, natural  philosophy,  moral  philosophy,  intellectual 
philosophy,  penmanship,  political  economy,  painting,  per- 
spective, physiology,  English  pronunciation,  reading,  rhetoric, 
Roman  antiquities,  stenography,  statistics,  surveying,  Spanish, 
trigonometry,  topography,  technology,  principles  of  teaching. 
The  gradual  increase  of  the  requirements  for  entrance  to 
the  American  college  during  this  period  is  an  indication  of 
the  widening  scope  of  the  secondary  curriculum.  Arithmetic 
is  the  only  subject  besides  Latin  and  Greek  that  was  required 
before  1800,  and  that  for  only  a  few  years  preceding  and 
in  only  a  few  cases.  During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  English  grammar,  geography,  algebra,  geometry 
and  ancient  history  were  quite  generally  added.  Xo  doubt 
the  fact  that  the  academies  were  giving  instruction  along  these 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        59 

various  lines  was  quite  as  much  a  reason  for  their  appearance 
in  the  entrance  requirements  as  the  fact  that  the  college  au- 
thorities wished  them  as  part  of  the  preliminary  preparation 
of  students. 

One  other  feature  of  the  academy  due  to  the  broadening  of 
the  curriculum  is  worthy  of  particular  mention.  That  is  the 
admission  of  girls  to  the  privileges  of  higher  education.  While 
this  feature  was  not  characteristic  of  the  earliest  academies, 
it  became  almost  universal  with  the  progress  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  the  first  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  a 
few  instances  even  earlier,  many  such  schools  were  established 
for  girls  only.  With  the  founding  of  Troy  Seminary  (1821) 
by  Mrs.  Willard  and  of  Mt.  Holyoke  (1836)  by  Mary  Lyon, 
a  new  standard  was  attained.  The  Troy  school  was  probably 
the  first  institution  for  the  higher  education  of  women  to  re- 
ceive government  financial  support.  While  the  character  of  the 
work  of  these  institutions  was  equal  to  that  of  most  of  the 
academies  for  boys,  in  very  many,  especially  those  under 
private  control,  the  standard  of  attainment  was  low.  Here 
the  ideal  of  education  as  adornment  prevailed.  The  follow- 
ing advertisement  of  one  such  school  from  the  late  eighteenth 
century  is  an  extreme  example  of  this  type  of  education : 

E.  ARMSTON  (or  perhaps  better  known  by  the  name  of 
Gardner)  continues  the  School  at  Point  Pleasant,  Norfolk 
Borough,  where  is  a  large  and  convenient  House  proper  to 
accommodate  young  Ladies  as  Boarders ;  at  which  School  is 
taught  Petit  Point  in  Flowers,  Fruit,  Landscapes,  and  Sculp- 
ture, Nun's  Work,  Embroidery  in  Silk,  Gold,  Silver,  Pearls, 
or  embossed,  Shading  of  all  Kinds,  in  the  various  Works  in 
Vogue,  Dresden  Point  Work,  Lace  Ditto,  Catgut  in  different 
Modes,  flourishing  Muslin,  after  the  newest  Taste,  and  most 
elegant  Pattern  Waxwork  in  Figure,  Fruit,  or  Flowers,  Shell 
Ditto,  or  grotesque,  Painting  in  Water  Colours  and  Mezzo- 
tinto ;  also  the'  Art  of  taking  off  Foliage,  with  several  other 
Embellishments  necessary  for  the  Amusement  of  Persons  of 
Fortune  who  have  Taste.  Specimens  of  the  Subscriber's 


60  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Work  may  be  seen  at  her  House,  as  also  of  her  Scholars; 
having  taught  several  years  in  Norfolk,  and  elsewhere,  to 
general  Satisfaction.  She  flatters  herself  that  those  Gentle- 
men and  Ladies  who  have  hitherto  employed  her  will  grant 
their  further  Indulgence,  as  no  Endeavours  shall  be  wanting 
to  complete  what  is  above  mentioned,  with  a  first  Attention 
to  the  Behaviour  of  those  Ladies  intrusted  to  her  Care. 

Reading  will  be  her  peculiar  Care ;  Writing  and  Arithmetick 
will  be  taught  by  a  Master  properly  qualified;  and,  if  de- 
sired, will  engage  Proficients  in  Musick  and  Dancing. 

In  method  also  there  was  some  development.  At  least 
these  institutions  broke  away  from  the  rigid  and  formal  pro- 
cedure of  the  Latin  schools.  They  showed  little  aversion  to 
innovation  and  they  at  least  experimented  with  all  the  novel 
educational  methods  imported  from  Europe.  Many  of  them 
adopted  the  Lancasterian  monitorial  plan  of  instruction. 
Somewhat  later  the  Fellenberg  scheme  of  manual  labor  had 
wide  vogue.  Pestalozzian  methods  were  embodied  in  the 
new  texts,  and  vitalized  instruction.  The  natural  sciences 
were  taught  through  demonstration  by  the  teacher  with 
elaborate  paraphernalia.  Attainments  in  the  vernacular  were 
displayed  through  declamation,  school  exhibition,  and  public 
oration.  The  test  of  "  use  "  was  applied  far  more  generally 
than  the  present-day  public  would  tolerate.  Even  the  educa- 
tion of  accomplishments  had  this  to  be  said  in  its  favor,— 
the  accomplishments  had  to  be  "  shown  off." 

Much  greater  freedom  was  introduced  not  only  in  choice 
of  subjects,  but  in  method ;  and  a  closer  correlation  of  studies 
with  actual  needs  and  experiences  was  attempted.  The  fact 
that  a  great  proportion  of  academic  students  not  passing  on  to 
college  entered  the  teaching  profession  made  for  the  use  of 
the  subjects  studied  in  a  more  vital  manner  than  had  been 
previously  attained. 

THE  AMERICAN  HIGH  SCHOOL.  —  As  the  Latin 
grammar  school  was  the  expression  of  European  orthodoxy 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        6 1 

and  conservatism,  and  the  academy  of  the  dawning  nation- 
alism of  America,  as  yet  cast  in  aristocratic  rather  than  demo- 
cratic form,  so  the  high  school  is  the  first  full  expression  of 
American  democracy  in  this  phase  of  education.  It  was  sup- 
ported by  taxation,  with  no  tuition  fees ;  it  was  controlled  by 
public  officials ;  it  offered  a  wide  course  of  study ;  it  was  artic- 
ulated with  the  lower  and  the  advanced  phases  of  education. 

Origin.  —  The  origin  of  the  term  "  high  school  "  in  the 
American  significance  is  not  clear.  The  term  "  higher  school  " 
in  its  European  significance  usually  indicates  all  institutions 
above  the  elementary  grade.  It  had  been  applied  in  a  few 
instances  to  particular  institutions,  notably  the  Edinburgh 
High  School.  This  Scottish  institution,  essentially  an  acad- 
emy, employed  the  monitorial  system  of  instruction  and  had 
achieved  an  international  reputation.  It  is  probable  that 
this  school  gave  its  name  to  the  American  institution.  The 
first  institution  of  the  new  type  to  be  founded  in  the  states 
was  opened  in  Boston  in  1821  under  the  name  of  the  English 
Classical  School.  It  was  avowedly  a  compliment  to  the 
Latin  School  of  long  standing,  and  was  to  provide  an  educa- 
tion in  advance  of  the  English  grammar  schools,  recently 
developed  as  a  continuation  of  the  primary  school  for  those 
boys  who  did  not  intend  to  proceed  to  college.  The  name 
"  high  school  "  was  not  applied  in  public  documents  until 
1824.  Meanwhile  in  New  York  City  an  educational  leader, 
John  Griscom,  had  been  agitating  for  a  high  school.  He  had 
published  in  1820  a  work  containing  a  description  of  the  Edin- 
burgh High  School.  In  1825  under  his  leadership  an  incor- 
porated private  institution  was  opened  under  the  name  of 
"  Monitorial  High  School." 

The  general  impetus  which  gave  rise  to  the  high  schools 
worked  through  three  distinct  channels.  One  of  these  was 
the  monitorial  scheme  of  Lancaster  and  of  Bell.  This  was  a 
very  popular  plan  for  the  establishment  of  free  schools,  adopted 
quite  generally  during  the  early  decades  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


62  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

tury.  The  great  merit  claimed  for  the  scheme  was  that  it 
made  free  education  for  all  possible  by  making  it  cheap.  This 
was  accomplished  by  having  the  older  boys  teach  those  less 
advanced.  Lancaster  argued  that  in  this  way  one  master 
could  teach  1000  boys  and  claimed  to  have  attained  this 
ideal  in  his  own  experience.  The  first  public  school  building 
erected  in  New  York  City  in  1809  contained  a  room  for  500 
boys.  In  England  Lancaster  had  "  educated  "  boys  by  this 
plan  at  an  annual  cost  per  capita  of  $1.25.  The  early  public 
schools  of  New  York  City,  as  well  as  those  of  many  other 
American  communities,  were  on  this  plan.  It  was  introduced 
also  into  many  academies.  With  the  development  of  the 
schools  of  the  Free  School  Society  of  New  York  City,  advanced 
grades  were  added,  still  taught  by  monitors.  When  the  ad- 
vanced grades  were  separated  for  the  special  purpose  of  train- 
ing monitors,  they  became  essentially  a  high  school.  This 
institution,  however,  did  not  thrive,  and  in  New  York  City 
the  form  which  the  secondary  school  took  was  that  of  the 
Free  Academy.  Meanwhile,  De  Witt  Clinton,  the  leading 
patron  of  the  elementary  system  of  monitorial  schools  in  the 
city,  was  now  governor,  advocating  the  establishment  of  a 
system  of  monitorial  high  schools  under  state  supervision  and 
with  both  state  and  local  public  support.  One  was  to  be 
located  in  each  county.  But  the  academy  system,  with  all 
of  its  local  influences,  was  too  strongly  intrenched,  and  the 
general  aversion  to  taxation  for  educational  purposes  was 
too  strong,  for  the  proposed  scheme  to  materialize. 

Nevertheless,  the  monitorial  scheme,  by  demonstrating 
the  possible  cheapness  of  public  education,  led  many  com- 
munities to  give  assistance  to  private  or  incorporated  acade- 
mies when  run  on  this  plan  and  to  develop  the  higher  grades 
of  the  elementary  school  when  based  on  public  support. 
This  tended  to  force  the  development  of  high  schools,  though 
the  differentiation  from  the  grades  was  slow. 

A  much  more  distinct  origin  of  the  hi";h  schools  was  through 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        63 

the  free  academy.  When  the  public  contribution  to  acade- 
mies became  a  more  important  factor  in  their  support  than 
the  private  contributions,  or  even  than  the  tuition,  the  public 
began  to  demand  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the  institution 
and  the  removal  of  restrictions  on  its  privileges.  The  former 
was  occasionally  secured  through  some  right  of  appointment 
to  the  board  of  trustees,  the  latter  usually  by  the  removal 
of  tuition  requirements  from  students  living  in  the  area  con- 
tributing by  taxation.  Numerous  academies  were  thus 
transformed.  The  only  step  necessary  to  make  these  in- 
stitutions high  schools  in  the  modern  sense  was  to  transfer 
their  control  to  an  elected  board  of  trustees.  This  step  was 
taken  with  the  Free  Academies  such  as  developed  in  New 
York,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  other  cities.  These  were 
high  schools  in  all  essentials.  Later  on  they  developed  into 
City  Colleges  —  though  the  reality  was  usually  not  attained 
until  long  after  the  name  —  or  were  merged  into  the  city 
system  under  the  one  school  board. 

The  most  important  force  in  the  development  of  high 
schools,  at  least  from  the  numerical  viewpoint,  though  at 
the  same  time  the  least  conspicuous,  was  the  Union  School 
District.  During  the  late  thirties  and  the  two  following 
decades  —  the  so-called  "  Horace  Mann  Period  "  —  the  de- 
fects of  the  district  school  system  had  become  conspicuous 
and  the  educational  needs  of  the  democratic  population  ob- 
vious. The  effort  to  meet  these  needs,  during  this  period  or 
a  little  later,  developed  in  almost  every  state  a  tendency 
toward  the  grouping  of  these  small  districts  into  larger  units. 
This  resulted  in  the  union  school.  Naturally  this  unification 
took  place  first  in  the  cities  and  towns.  The  advantages 
becoming  obvious,  villages  demanded  the  same  privilege.  As 
this  amalgamation  proceeded  a  graded  system  developed 
which  culminated  in  all  larger  units  of  population  where  the 
academy  was  not  intrenched  in  a  high  school  course  full  or 
rudimentary. 


64  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Development  of  the  High  School  System.  —  The  course  of 
development  through  the  union  school  may  be  illustrated  in 
New  York  State.  Beginning  in  1837,  there  were  numerous 
acts  of  the  legislature  giving  union  school  systems  to  the 
smaller  cities  of  the  state.  Most  of  these  were  free,  several 
included  a  high  school.  In  1853  a  statute  was  enacted 
giving  the  privilege  of  establishing  such  systems  without 
special  act.  A  few  years  later  an  amendment  required  all 
such  schools  to  be  free.  The  peculiar  relations  of  the  State 
Regents  to  the  Superintendents  of  Common  Schools  in  this 
state  together  with  the  dominant  influence  of  the  acade- 
mies permitted  no  early  or  distinct  development  of  the  high 
school. 

The  state  which  most  clearly  shows  the  development  of 
the  high  school  is  Massachusetts,  as  New  York  shows  that 
of  the  academy.  The  basis  of  the  development  is  found 
in  the  law  of  1827,  though  the  term  "  high  school  "  did 
not  come  into  general  use  until  a  decade  or  so  later.  The 
portion  of  the  law  which  relates  to  secondary  education  is  as 
follows : 

"  And  every  city,  town,  or  district,  containing  five  hundred 
families,  or  householders,  shall  be  provided  with  such  teacher 
or  teachers  for  such  term  of  time  as  shall  be  equivalent  to 
twenty-four  months,  for  one  school  in  each  year,  and  shall 
also  be  provided  with  a  master  of  good  morals,  competent 
to  instruct,  in  addition  to  the  branches  of  learning  aforesaid, 
the  history  of  the  United  States,  bookkeeping  by  single 
entry,  geometry,  surveying,  and  algebra ;  and  shall  employ 
such  master  to  instruct  a  school,  in  such  city,  town,  or  dis- 
trict, for  the  benefits  of  all  the  inhabitants  thereof,  at  least 
ten  months  in  each  year,  exclusive  of  vacations,  in  such  con- 
venient place,  or  alternately  at  such  places  in  such  city,  town, 
or  district,  as  the  said  inhabitants,  at  their  meeting  in  March, 
or  April,  annually,  shall  determine ;  and  in  every  city,  or 
town,  containing  four  thousand  inhabitants,  such  master 
shall  be  competent,  in  addition  to  all  the  foregoing  branches, 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        65 

to  instruct  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  history,  rhetoric, 
and  logic." 

This  is  essentially  a  union  school ;  that  is,  a  town  school 
superposed  on  the  district  schools.  It  is  not  created  by 
the  union  of  old  districts  but  is  a  revival  of  the  old  town 
school,  now  of  a  higher  grade  than  the  constituent  district 
schools. 

Two  grades  of  high  schools  were  defined  in  this  law,  the 
higher  one  distinguished  by  the  addition  of  Latin,  Greek, 
logic,  and  rhetoric  to  the  curriculum.  This  law,  with  sub- 
sequent amendments,  developed  the  first  state  system  of 
high  schools.  Some  of  these  amendments,  especially  that  of 
1840,  were  reactionary  and  lowered  the  standard.  But  by 
the  Civil  War  period  a  comprehensive  and  effective  system  of 
high  schools  had  been  built  up.  In  1840  the  term  "  high 
school  "  first  appeared  on  the  statute  books.  While  there 
was  no  legal  definition  of  the  term,  the  following  quotation 
or  extract  from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  General  School 
Committee  of  Manchester  in  1849  gives  an  excellent  state- 
ment of  the  popular  view. 

"  A  high  school  is  no  ambiguous  thing.  It  is  a  term  that 
possesses  an  exact  and  well-defined  meaning.  It  is  neither 
a  primary  or  a  grammar  school,  nor  a  compound  of  the  two, 
without  any  regard  to  age  or  attainment,  but  a  school  dis- 
tinct by  itself,  to  which  there  is  no  access,  except  through  the 
two  first.  Thus  high  school  has  been  defined  for  years  past 
and  this  definition  of  them  is  recognized  in  our  revised  statutes 
(1835)  and  wherever  schools  are  spoken  of  '  for  the  whole 
town/  as  the  saying  is." 

It  has  been  frequently  stated  that  there  was  no  system  of 
high  schools  in  this  country  before  the  Civil  War,  and  that 
no  more  than  fifty  or  sixty  scattered  institutions  existed. 
True  it  is  that  the  use  of  the  term  was  not  yet  general  and  the 
course  of  study  not  definitely  fixed,  yet  by  the  standards  we 
use  to-day,  as  well  as  by  those  of  the  earlier  period,  these  state- 
ments seem  to  be  a  gross  underestimate.  In  his  study  of  the 
written  reports  of  the  Massachusetts  towns,  Dr.  Inglis  gives 
the  following  summary : 


66 


Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


CENSUS 

REQUIRED 
BY  LAW 

ESTABLISHED 
ACCORDING  TO 
LAW 

PERCENTAGE 
MEETING  THE 
LAW 

ESTABLISHED 
BUT  NOT  RE- 
QUIRED 

TOTAL 
ESTABLISHED 

1830    .      . 

35 

3 

8.6 

O 

3 

1840    .      . 

44 

16 

36-4 

2 

18 

1850    .      . 

76 

42 

55-3 

5 

47 

1860   .     . 

128 

86 

67.2 

16 

IO2 

Meanwhile  the  establishment  of  academies  had  declined. 
During  the  decennium  1821-1830  there  were  three  high 
schools  and  thirty-two  academies  established.  During  that 
from  1851  to  1860  there  were  sixty-five  high  schools  estab- 
lished and  nineteen  academies  incorporated. 

The  same  forces  were  at  work  in  other  states  during  this 
period,  commonly  through  a  district  union  school  law.  The 
usual  procedure  was  for  a  city  to  obtain  through  special 
enactment  the  privilege  of  establishing  a  union  school  com- 
prising the  higher  grades.  Then  in  the  course  of  time  the 
legislature  would  extend  the  privilege  by  general  enactment. 
Thus  the  state  of  Ohio  passed  such  a  permissive  law  in  1848 ; 
Iowa  in  1849;  New  York  in  1853;  Michigan  in  1857.  Un- 
like the  Massachusetts  plan,  the  compulsory  feature  was 
usually  attained  long  after. 

The  right  was  often  given  to  communities  to  maintain  out 
of  public  funds  schools  whose  benefits  could  be  shared  only 
by  a  privileged  part  of  the  community.  Popular  approval  of 
the  public  high  school  came  quite  slowly  in  many  regions. 
The  courts  upheld  the  right  to  establish  such  schools,  the 
locus  situ  being  the  Kalamazoo  case  in  the  Michigan  courts 
of  1874.! 

There  were  many  minor  steps  in  the  building  up  of  the  high 
school  system,  some  of  which  have  not  yet  been  taken  in  many 
commonwealths.  The  most  important  of  these  steps  relate 


1  See  Cubberley  and  Elliott,  Source  Book  in  State  School  Administration. 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        67 

to  the  extension  of  the  privilege  of  secondary  education  to 
every  child.  This  is  attempted  through  several  schemes ;  by 
state  payment  of  tuition,  by  free  transportation,  and  by  sub- 
sidizing poorer  communities.  The  most  significant  of  these 
movements  is  the  very  recent  one  of  developing  the  rural 
high  schools  by  a  combination  of  all  these  means.  The 
broadening  of  the  curriculum  and  the  improvement  of  method, 
together  with  this  development  of  the  rural  high  schools, 
have  brought  about  the  most  striking  feature  in  the  present 
situation,  namely,  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of  high 
schools  and  in  their  attendance.  In  the  decade  between  1900 
and  1910  the  attendance  increased  over  60  per  cent.  The  most 
recent  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  gives 
the  number  of  high  schools  in  the  United  States  (1912-13) 
as  13,263  and  the  number  of  pupils  attending  as  1,246,827. 

Next  to  this  quantitative  increase  in  importance,  the  changes 
in  curriculum  and  method  are  the  most  significant.  There 
was  no  essential  difference  in  curriculum  between  the  early 
high  school  and  the  academy  contemporaneous  with  it.  The 
chief  distinction  between  these  two  types  of  secondary  school 
lay  in  organization  and  form  of  support.  Public  maintenance 
tended  to  reduce  the  number  of  subjects  offered  and  public 
control  and  responsibility  tended  to  greater  unity  in  the  curric- 
ulum. But  the  high  school  made  no  great  advance  upon 
the  academy.  The  Massachusetts  law  of  1827,  previously 
quoted,  gives  the  state  curriculum.  Many  schools  established 
under  this  law  did  not  offer  all  of  these  subjects.  Many 
offered  others  in  addition.  For  example,  the  curriculum  of 
the  English  High  School  of  Boston  in  the  year  the  law  was 
enacted  included  fourteen  subjects  over  and  above  those  re- 
quired. In  smaller  high  schools  the  offering  was  naturally 
much  more  meager.  But  however  the  sections  of  the  country 
or  the  institutions  of  the  same  section  varied  in  their  offering, 
the  principles  involved  in  the  selection  did  not  change.  It 
was  not  until  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  that  educators 


68  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

became  conscious  of  the  great  problems  involved  in  the  selec- 
tion and  organization  of  proper  curricula  for  secondary  schools 
and  in  the  elaboration  of  appropriate  methods.  And  the 
new  century  had  dawned  before  this  consciousness  spread  to 
the  public.  The  earlier  realization  found  its  expression  in  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  in  1893.  The  later  expresses 
itself  in  the  growing  demand  for  a  broadened  and  intensified 
curriculum,  a  vitalized  method,  and  an  organization  which 
shall  bring  to  every  child  the  possibility  of  attaining  those 
elements  of  culture  essential  to  the  proper  use  of  life's  leisure, 
and  those  practical  elements  essential  to  vocational  and 
economic  success. 

The  remainder  of  this  volume  is  devoted  to  the  statement 
of  these  problems  and  to  the  presentation  of  ways  in  which 
they  have  been  or  may  be  met. 

PROBLEMS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  similarity  is  there  between  the  situation  in  early  Greek 
civilization  and  our  own  times,  so  far  as  the  elements  of  the  situation 
determine  the  problems  of  secondary  ..education  ? 

2.  How  far  do  we  find  in  the  theory  of  education  as  formulated  by 
the  Greek  philosophers  elements  of  the  problem  as  stated  by  present- 
day  writers  ? 

3.  To  what  extent  is  the  relation  between  the  practical  and  the 
theoretical   types   of   schools   in    Greece   the  same  that   we   have   to- 
day? 

4.  To  what  extent  did  the  grammatical  and  rhetorical  training  of 
Greek,  Roman,  or  medieval  schools  meet  their  social  needs  ? 

5.  Have  these  subjects  the  same  educative  value  now  as  then  ? 

6.  Of  what  value  to  the  modern  secondary  school  teacher  or  adminis- 
trator is  Quintilian's  treatise? 

7.  What  were  the  chief  Colloquies  used  as  texts  in  the  Latin  grammar 
schools  of  the  post-Renaissance  period  ?     What  were  their  merits  as 
texts  ?     What  principles  of  method  were  involved  ? 

8.  What  was  the  value  of  the  Latin  play  from  the  point  of  view  of 
method  ?     What  was  its  educative  value  in  other  respects  ? 

9.  What  were  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  study  of  Plautus  and 
Terence  ?    Of  Cicero  ? 


Historic  Sketch  of  Secondary  Education        69 

10.  What  were  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  extreme  classicism 
called  Ciceronianism  ?     Make  a  study  of  the  Ciceronian  controversy. 

11.  In  comparing  the  curricula  of  the  Latin  grammar  schools  of  the 
sixteenth  century  with  those  of  the  classical  schools  of  the  early  or 
middle  nineteenth  century  and  with  those  of  the  present  time,  what 
progress  is  to  be  found  ? 

12.  In  the  writings  of  the  schoolmen  of  the  sixteenth  century,  make 
a  comparative  study  of  curricula.     Of  method. 

13.  What  were  the  limitations  of  the  free  schools  of  England,  judged 
from  the  point  of  view  of  their  actual  service  to  contemporary  society, 
or  from  that  of  modern  times  ? 

14.  Make  a  comparative  study  of  the  various  treatises  on  education 
during  the  Renaissance  and  the  subsequent  period,  either  of  the  domi- 
nant Latin  school  type  or  of  the  variant  type,  in  regard  to  purpose,  or- 
ganization, method,  of  secondary  education,  or  in  regard  to  any  one 
subject  of  the  curriculum. 

15.  What  points  of  value  for  modern  school  work  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Jesuit  system  regarding  organization,  method,  discipline,  curric- 
ulum ? 

1 6.  Trace  the  development  of  any  one  subject  in  the  secondary 
curriculum. 

17.  Trace  the  method  of  study  used  in  any  one  subject. 

18.  What  are  the  respective  merits  of  private  and  public  or  of  tutorial 
and  school  education  ? 

19.  Trace  the  development  of  the  academies  in  any  one  state. 

20.  Trace  the  development  of  the  high  schools  in  any  one  state. 

21.  What  historical  factors  are  involved  in  the  present  high  school 
situation  in  any  one  state  ? 

REFERENCES 

ABELSON,  PAUL.     Seven  Liberal  Arts.     New  York,  1906. 

ADAMSON,  JOHN  WILLIAM.     Pioneers  of  Modern  Education.     Cambridge, 

1905. 
BOLTON,   FREDERICK  ELMER.     Secondary  School  System   of  Germany. 

New  York,  1900. 
BROWN,  ELMER  ELLSWORTH.   Making  of  our  Middle  Schools.   New  York, 

1903. 

Secondary  Education.     Albany,  1900. 
FARRINGTON,    FREDERIC    ERNEST.     French    Secondary    Schools.     New 

York,  1910. 
FICK,  R.     Auf  Dcutschlands  Hohcn  Schulen.     Berlin,  1900. 


70  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

GRAVES,   FRANK    PIERREPOXT.     History  of  Education.     3   vols.     New 

York,  1909. 
INGLIS,  ALEXANDER  JAMES.     Rise  of  the  High  School  in  Massachusetts. 

New  York,  1911. 
LEACH,  ARTHUR  FRANCIS.     Educational  Charters  and  Documents,   598 

to  1909.     Cambridge,  1911. 

English  Schools  at  the  Reformation.     Westminster,  1896. 
LEXIS,  W.     Die  Reform  des  hotter er  Schulwesens  in  Pruessen.     Berlin, 

1904. 
MERTZ,    GEORGE   KARL.     Des  Schulwesen  der  Deutschen   Reformation 

im  16.  Jahrhundert.     Heidelberg,  1902. 
MONROE,  PAUL.     Textbook  in  the  History   of  Education.     New   York, 

1906. 
MONTMORENCY,  J.  E.  G.  DE.     State  Intervention  in  English  Education. 

Cambridge,  1902. 
PAULSEN.    FRIEDRICH.     Geschichte    des    Gelehrten    Unterrichts    auf   den 

Deutschen  Schulen  und  Universitaten.     Leipsig,  1885. 
German  Education,  Past  and  Present.     New  York,  1908. 
RUSSELL,  JAMES  EARL.     German  Higher  Schools.     New  York,  1899. 
WATSON,  FOSTER.     English  Grammar  Schools  to  1660.     Cambridge,  1908. 
WOODWARD,  WILLIAM  HARRISON.      Desiderius  Erasmus  concerning  the 

Aim  and  Method  of  Education.     Cambridge,  1904. 
Studies  in  Education  during  the  Age  of  the  Renaissance,  1400-1600. 

Cambridge,  1906. 

Vittorino  da  Feltre  and  other  Humanist  Educators.     Cambridge,  1897. 
Cyclopedia  of  Education.     Free  Schools,   Endowed  Schools,   Grammar 

Schools,   Colloquies,   Latin  Language  and  Literature,   articles  on 

various  national  systems  and  various  academic  subjects. 
See  the  bibliographies  in  the  above  books  and  those  appended  to  the 

Cyclopedia  articles  mentioned  above,  and  to  the  Cyclopedia  articles 

on  the  various  national  systems. 


FRANCE 

POSITION   OF   SECONDARY   EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

—  Secondary  education  has  never  been  adequately  and  ac- 
ceptably defined.  In  the  United  States,  we  usually  arrive  at 
a  working  definition  by  a  method  of  exclusion,  segregating  the 
field  of  elementary  education  at  one  end  of  the  scale,  and 
higher  education,  as  represented  by  colleges  and  universities, 
at  the  other.  The  first  deals  with  the  absolutely  essential 
educational  processes,  and  the  second  with  the  purely  cultural 
and  professional  aspects,  while  the  loosely  delimited  inter- 
mediate area  is  commonly  accepted  as  covering  the  field  of 
secondary  education.  In  England  and  on  the  continent,  even 
this  approximation  is  inadequate,  for  broadly  speaking,  the 
secondary  school  does  not  form  a  transition  stage  between  the 
elementary  school  and  the  university.  Although  the  sec- 
ondary school  is  preparatory  to  the  university,  it  is  not  neces- 
sarily, or  even  generally  for  the  mass  of  the  pupils,  comple- 
mentary to  the  lower  school.  It  is  distinctly  a  school  for  the 
classes,  and  not  for  the  masses.  For  the  major  part  of  the 
pupils  of  the  secondary  schools,  then,  the  three  R's  are  taught 
either  in  elementary  classes  attached  to  these  schools  as  in 
France  and  Germany,  or  in  special  detached  schools  as  in  Eng- 
land. In  this  last-named  country,  only  a  relatively  small 
number  of  the  secondary  school  pupils  receive  their  ground- 
ing in  the  fundamentals  in  the  regular  elementary  schools, 
and  the  great  majority  of  these  cases,  aside  from  the  scholar- 
ship holders,  is  found  in  the  smaller  towns  and  rural  districts 


72  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

where  the  educational  facilities  are  naturally  limited,  and  where 
the  traditional  class  prejudice  or  caste  feeling  is  perhaps  less 
strong.  In  the  last  analysis,  on  the  continent  at  least,  it  is 
the  financial  position  of  the  parent  that  is  the  large  determining 
factor  in  deciding  whether  the  child  shall  go  to  a  primary  school 
or  to  a  secondary  school.  Universal  tuition  fees  in  these  for- 
eign secondary  schools  operate  to  preserve  the  exclusiveness 
of  this  intellectual  aristocracy.  Appreciation  of  the  social 
barrier  between  elementary  and  secondary  schools  is  an  abso- 
lute prerequisite  to  any  discussion  of  the  position  of  the  sec- 
ondary school  abroad. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SYSTEM  OF  SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS.  —  Of  the  four  great  civilized  nations  of  the  world, 
France  has  the  oldest  system  of  secondary  schools,  for  the 
ancient  College  d'Harcourt,  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  illustrious 
institutions  of  secondary  grade,  was  founded  away  back  in 
1180,  thus  even  antedating  the  venerable  University  of  Paris 
itself.  In  those  early  days,  all  schools  were  under  clerical 
control,  with  the  seven  liberal  arts  still  influencing  the  cur- 
riculum. Even  at  that  time,  the  arts  work  of  the  university 
was  given  in  the  colleges,  or  secondary  schools,  a  characteristic 
that  still  persists  to  a  very  marked  degree  in  the  secondary 
schools  of  to-day.  The  Ratio  studiorum  of  the  Jesuits  (1599) 
embodied  the  most  advanced  pedagogical  theory  and  practice 
of  the  time,  and  served  as  a  model  for  the  organization  of  the 
secondary  school  program  of  studies  for  nearly  two  centuries. 
Indeed  its  influence  was  indirectly  felt  almost  to  within  the 
memory  of  men  now  alive,  not  only  in  France,  but  in  Ger- 
many, England,  and  the  United  States  as  well.  It  represented 
the  quintessence  of  humanistic  culture,  and  embraced  little  out- 
side classic  and  particularly  Latin  authors.  The  expulsion  of 
the  Jesuits  from  France,  and  the  subsequent  suppression  of 
the  order  eliminated  the  form,  but  not  the  substance  of  Jesuit 
influence  in  the  secondary  school  program  of  studies.  Hu- 
manistic domination  of  the  school  program  experienced  but  a 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  73 

temporary  reverse  in  the  great  social  and  political  upheaval  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  succeeding  "  central  schools  " 
(1795-1802)  which  reflected  the  modern  temper  of  the  revolu- 
tionary governments  exerted  only  a  passing  influence,  but  it 
was,  nevertheless,  a  precursor  of  what  the  nineteenth  century 
should  bring  to  pass.  With  the  tightening  hold  of  Napoleon 
upon  the  political  organization  of  the  nation,  the  old  order 
of  things  educational  rose  phcenix-like  from  the  ashes  of  the 
blasted  hopes  of  popular  self-government.  The  present 
administrative  organization  of  French  secondary  education 
dates  from  the  Napoleonic  reforms  of  1802  and  1808,  but  the 
subject  matter  of  the  school  curriculum  throughout  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  largely  that  of  the  old  regime.  In  fact  as 
late  as  1821,  a  ministerial  order  required  the  instruction  in 
philosophy  to  be  given  in  Latin,  and  it  was  not  until  nine  years 
later  (1830)  that  the  examination  in  philosophy  for  the  bach- 
elor's degree  could  be  held  in  French.  Such  was  the  persistence 
of  the  humanistic  tradition. 

From  the  educational  point  of  view,  the  nineteenth  century 
in  France  was  marked  by  the  struggle  of  two  sets  of  conflicting 
forces :  humanism  versus  realism,  and  the  church  versus  the 
state.  Both  of  these  began  long  before  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  but  during  its  closing  years  the  strife  became  most 
acute.  In  each  instance  the  newcomer  won  out,  but  only 
after  a  terrific  contest.  In  the  second,  the  state  has  absolutely 
vanquished  its  opponent,  the  passage  of  the  law  suppressing 
the  teaching  congregations  (1904)  and  the  abrogation  of  the 
Concordat  (1905)  marking  the  closing  acts  of  what  has 
proved  a  most  dramatic  struggle,  and  ending  forever  the 
domination  of  the  church  in  matters  educational.  In  the 
first  instance,  the  old  classical  education  has  been  forced  to 
share  its  time-honored  prerogatives  with  its  younger  rival, 
and  realistic  culture  is  officially  at  least  on  an  exact  equality 
with  humanistic  culture.  The  new  program  of  1902  es- 
tablished this  parity. 


74  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

THE  SYSTEM.  —  Centralization  of  Control.  —  French 
education  is  noteworthy  for  the  high  degree  of  centralization 
that  prevails  throughout  the  system.  This  results  in  a  stand- 
ardization of  administrative  details  of  organization,  of  quali- 
fications of  teachers,  and  of  program,  but  not  of  method. 
Most  matters  of  control  of  secondary  schools  are  regulated 
from  the  ministry  in  Paris,  while  the  responsibility  for  seeing 
that  these  regulations  are  carried  out  devolves  upon  the 
rectors  (one  for  each  academy),  and  the  academy  inspectors 
(one  for  each  department).  Local  or  communal  opinion  en- 
joys practically  no  recognition  on  the  purely  professional  side 
of  secondary  school  administration.  Such  affairs  are  deter- 
mined by  the  central  educational  authorities.  The  program 
of  studies  is  drawn  up,  the  syllabus  of  work  is  arranged,  the 
qualifications  of  teachers  are  prescribed,  the  schools  are  in- 
spected, and  the  leaving  examinations  are  held  by  the  central 
authorities,  or  their  accredited  representatives,  the  rectors 
and  their  deputies.  Indeed,  the  control  exercised  by  the 
educational  department  at  Paris  over  the  whole  of  France  is 
as  real  as  that  exerted  by  any  city  school  authorities  in  this 
country  over  the  schools  of  their  own  municipality.  Such  a 
degree  of  centralization  would  be  highly  distasteful  even  in 
the  most  extreme  of  our  American  commonwealths,  but  it 
seems  to  succeed  very  satisfactorily  in  France.  It  is  one  of 
the  legacies  that  Napoleon  left  to  the  French  people. 

Secondary  Education  is  nowhere  compulsory  in  France.  - 
The  citizens  of  a  given  community  decide  whether  or  not  they 
care  to  assume  responsibility  for  a  school  of  secondary  grade, 
which  in  every  instance,  whether  or  not  it  is  a  state  school 
includes  the  construction,  equipment,  and  maintenance  of  a 
suitable  building,  but  after  this  everything  else  is  determined 
for  them  automatically.  Such  centralization  naturally  has 
the  defects  of  its  merits.  Undoubtedly  it  tends  to  strengthen 
the  weaker  schools,  and  theoretically  at  the  same  time  to 
retard  the  most  progressive.  Unquestionably,  it  does  prac- 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  75 

tically  eliminate  individual  experimentation  and  initiative 
in  France,  but  the  general  standard  is  so  high  and  the  central 
control  so  uniformly  sane  that  this  repression  is  not  seriously 
felt.  Differentiation  is  recognized  in  the  two  general  types  of 
secondary  schools. 

Types  of  Schools.  — According  to  the  law  of  1802,  "  every 
school  established  by  the  communes  or  conducted  by  private 
individuals  wherein  are  taught  French,  Latin,  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  geography,  of  history,  and  of  mathematics,  will  be 
considered  as  a  secondary  school."  This  sentence  gives  us 
the  origin  of  the  communal  college.  The  lycees,  devoting 
themselves  primarily  to  Latin  and  mathematics,  were  sup- 
ported from  the  public  treasury,  and  so  formed  a  class  of  insti- 
tutions somewhat  higher  than  the  communal  colleges.  This 
old  distinction  persists  to-day,  and  the  nomenclature  of  a 
century  ago  is  still  retained.  The  lycee  is  a  state  school,  while 
the  college  is  a  local  institution.  The  outward  distinction 
between  the  two  resolves  itself  into  a  question  of  the  source 
of  the  teachers'  salaries.  In  the  case  of  the  lycee,  the  state 
provides  this  money,  while  in  the  case  of  the  college,  the  com- 
munity pays  the  bills.  In  any  event  the  other  expenses  must 
be  borne  by  the  community.  Nominally  these  two  classes 
of  schools  are  of  equal  rank,  but  practically  the  lycee  is  of  a 
higher  type.  Nevertheless,  the  official  program  of  studies 
is  in  each  instance  the  same.  The  standards  of  the  teaching 
force  in  the  state  schools  are  appreciably  higher  than  in  the 
colleges,  so  that  the  best  teachers  are  naturally  attracted  there 
on  account  of  the  advantages  of  living  in  larger  towns,  the 
better  salaries,  and  the  increased  social  prestige  attached  to  an 
appointment  in  a  state  school.  Practically  the  difference 
between  these  two  types  of  schools  is  quite  comparable  to  that 
existing  in  this  country  between  a  metropolitan  high  school 
and  a  high  school  in  a  city  of  twenty  thousand  inhabitants. 

Unrest  in  Secondary  Education.  —  Within  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  probably  no  department  of  education  has  been 


76  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

beset  with  more  unrest  and  at  the  same  time  been  the  subject 
of  more  careful  and  systematic  study  than  the  field  of  second- 
ary education.  Germany  took  the  initiative  in  the  Con- 
ference of  1890  which  bore  fruit  in  the  reform  of  1892.  This 
latter  year  saw  the  appointment  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  of 
the  National  Education  Association  of  the  United  States, 
whose  work  is  too  well  known  to  need  further  elaboration 
here.  England  followed  suit  two  years  later  by  appointing  a 
Royal  Commission  under  the  chairmanship  of  Mr.  James  Bryce 
to  make  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  condition  of  secondary 
education  in  that  country.  The  voluminous  report  emanating 
from  this  body  contained  many  recommendations  that  have 
since  been  incorporated  into  English  law,  the  most  important 
of  them  resulting  in  the  present  school  organization  under  the 
control  of  the  Board  of  Education  (1900).  The  previous 
year  saw  France  undertaking  a  similar  piece  of  work  through 
the  medium  of  the  Ribot  Parliamentary  Committee.  Ger- 
many had  another  Conference  at  work  in  1900,  and  this  re- 
sulted in  the  new  program  of  1901.  In  the  meantime,  the 
French  commission  was  gathering  evidence  from  every  source 
that  seemed  to  promise  any  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the 
vexed  problem  of  secondary  education.  The  result  Was  the 
reorganization  of  secondary  education  in  1902.  These  various 
national  inquiries  and  reforms  followed  so  closely  one  after 
the  other  that  international  suggestion  and  initiative  can 
scarcely  have  exerted  much  influence.  They  represent  rather 
the  outcropping  of  a  common  spirit  of  unrest,  a  feeling  of  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  existing  order.  The  investigations  in 
England  and  France  were  productive  of  more  significant  edu- 
cational changes  than  those  in  either  Germany  or  the  United 
States,  those  in  the  first-named  country  being  more  specifically 
confined  to  educational  organization,  and  those  in  the  second 
being  fundamental  reorganizations  of  programs  of  studies. 

Primary  and  Secondary  Schools  Defined  —  All  this  paves 
the  way  for  a  more  careful  differentiation  of  the   fields  of 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  77 

primary  and  secondary  education  than  has  thus  far  been 
vouchsafed.  Although  the  terms  "  primary  "  and  "  second- 
ary "  are  perfectly  well  known  to  every  student  of  American 
education,  the  connotation  attached  to  them  in  France 
is  quite  distinct  from  anything  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
In  the  United  States,  the  relationship  between  the  two 
lower  degrees  of  the  educational  scheme  is  a  latitudinal 
relationship,  with  one  system  superimposed  upon  the  other, 
whereas  in  France  the  two  systems  exist  side  by  side,  or  rather 
there  is  a  longitudinal  relationship  existing  between  them. 
In  the  United  States,  the  youngster  who  goes  to  school  at  six 
or  eight  years  of  age  enters  an  elementary  or  primary  school. 
After  completing  the  seven  or  eight  years'  course  of  the  lower 
school,  he  passes  on  to  a  higher  grade  of  school  known  as  a 
secondary  school.  The  lower  school  course  is  completed  before 
he  enters  the  higher  school.  The  line  of  cleavage  between  the 
two  types  of  schools  is  quite  distinct  and  fixed,  with  relatively 
little  overlapping.  In  France,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pupil 
who  enters  school  at  six  years  of  age  or  younger  may  go  to  a 
primary  school,  or  he  may  go  to  a  secondary  school.  Both 
are  state  founded,  state  supported,  state  directed,  and  state 
inspected.  The  former  is  a  free  school ;  the  latter  is  a  fee 
school.  For  the  first  two  years,  the  programs  followed  are 
substantially  the  same,  differences  of  subject  matter  coming 
to  light  in  the  succeeding  three  years  in  the  form  of  the  modern 
language  instruction-  that  is  found  in  the  elementary  classes  of 
the  secondary  schools.  The  differentiation  between  the  two 
types  of  schools  is  social,  or  speaking  broadly,  economic. 
Fundamentally,  then,  there  is  a  sociological  motive  at  work 
which  determines  whether  the  parent  shall  send  his  child  to  a 
primary  or  to  a  secondary  school.  The  pupils  of  the  secondary 
school  look  forward  to  a  professional  or  directive  career,  while 
those  in  the  elementary  school  can  seldom  rise  above  the  posi- 
tion of  non-commissioned  officers  in  the  great  industrial, 
commercial,  or  agricultural  army. 


78  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Characteristics  of  the  Course.  —  The  French  program  of 
1902,  which  has  since  been  modified  in  only  minor  details, 
presents  certain  unique  features,  among  them,  its  flexibility, 
the  opportunity  afforded  for  the  pupil  to  change  from  one 
course  to  another  without  serious  loss  of  time,  and  the  con- 
scious effort  to  meet  the  leaving-school  problem,  made  possible 
by  the  concentric-circle  method  of  instruction.  Election  of 
parallel  and  equivalent  courses,  a  novel  feature  in  French 
programs,  is  definitely  attributable  to  the  influence  of  Ameri- 
can education,  but  in  France  it  has  been  worked  out  in  a  more 
satisfactory  way  than  is  ordinarily  found  in  this  country. 
French  secondary  education  proper  begins  when  the  boy 
is  about  eleven  years  of  age,  although  as  has  already  been 
indicated,  the  preliminary  training  is  generally  obtained  in  the 
elementary  classes  attached  to  the  same  school.  Up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  secondary  course,  it  is  perfectly  possible  for 
the  pupil  to  pass  from  the  primary  to  the  secondary  school 
system  practically  at  will,  but  once  beyond  this  point  it  is  next 
to  impossible  to  make  the  transition. 

In  the  terms  of  the  official  decree  of  1902,  "  secondary  in- 
struction is  given  in  a  course  of  study  which  extends  over  seven 
years,  and  is  divided  into  two  cycles :  one  of  four  years,  and 
one  of  three  years."  France  thus  distinguishes  between  a 
secondary  school  and  secondary  instruction,  the  former  being 
applied  to  a  class  institution  which  receives  the  boy  at  the 
time  when  his  schooling  begins  and  prepares  him  to  enter  the 
university,  and  the  latter  referring  to  the  instruction  given 
during  the  last  seven  years  of  that  period,  normally  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  eighteenth  year. 

At  the  moment  when  this  secondary  instruction  begins,  two 
parallel  courses  open  out  before  the  lad,  one  with  Latin 
(division  A),  and  the  other  without  Latin  (division  B).  Save 
for  the  exception  just  noted,  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  the 
two  courses  are  the  same,  although  the  time  devoted  to  Latin 
in  division  A  is  occupied  by  additional  hours  in  French  and 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  79 

science  in  division  B.  The  common  subjects  of  instruction 
are  French,  modern  languages  (English  or  German),  history 
and  geography,  mathematics,  natural  science,  and  drawing. 
Two  years  later,  division  A  pupils  may  elect  Greek,  giving  up 
two  hours  of  modern  language  and  drawing  therefor.  An- 
other two  years  sees  them  at  the  end  of  the  first  cycle,  four 
years  from  the  starting  point.  This  forms  a  natural  break 
just  about  midway  of  the  course  and  rounds  out  a  complete 
though  elementary  circle  of  intellectual  achievement.  If  the 
pupil  is  compelled  to  drop  out  here,  he  can  do  so  without  feel- 
ing that  he  is  leaving  a  piece  of  work  half  done.  He  can  carry 
away  with  him  a  definite  unity  of  ideas.  He  has  covered  in 
cursory  fashion  the  whole  range  of  the  national  literature, 
paying  considerable  attention  to  the  classic  writers ;  he  has 
studied  from  one  to  three  foreign  languages,  according  to  the 
course  he  has  selected,  for  from  two  to  four  or  more  years ; 
he  has  completed  elementary  arithmetic,  with  perhaps  some 
more  advanced  mathematics ;  he  has  been  introduced  to 
scientific  lore ;  he  has  studied  the  geography  of  the  whole 
world ;  he  is  familiar  with  the  great  movements  of  history 
from  the  very  beginning  down  to  1889 ;  and  he  has  had  two 
years  of  elementary  moral  instruction,  introduced  to  supply 
the  place  of  the  former  religious  teaching ;  in  other  words, 
he  has  touched  practically  all  the  subjects  of  secondary  school 
study.  The  advantage  of  this  scheme  over  the  old  program 
of  studies,  which  was  laid  out  upon  a  seven-year  basis,  must  be 
readily  apparent. 

At  this  point,  an  entire  realignment  is  possible,  for  four 
parallel  courses  present  themselves :  section  A,  a  strictly 
classical  course,  with  both  Latin  and  Greek ;  section  B,  a 
Latin-modern-language  course ;  section  C,  a  Latin-science 
course ;  and  section  D,  a  science-modern-language  course. 
Two  years  later,  the  pupil  must  choose  again,  this  time  be- 
tween philosophy  and  mathematics.  In  this  highest  form 
several  of  the  subjects  are  relegated  to  the  elective  group, 


8o  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

while  the  major  part  of  the  time  is  devoted  to  philosophy, 
history,  physical  and  natural  sciences  in  the  philosophy  form, 
and  in  the  parallel  mathematics  form  to  those  same  subjects 
together  with  mathematics  and  modern  languages.  In  the 
latter  class,  nineteen  hours  per  week  are  devoted  to  realistic 
subjects  as  against  only  about  nine  hours  for  the  humanistic 
group.  Reference  to  the  complete  program  of  studies  which 
will  be  found  on  the  following  pages  will  clear  up  many  ques- 
tions with  regard  to  the  distribution  of  subjects. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  does  not  represent  the 
whole  work  of  the  French  secondary  school,  for  most  of  the 
important  lycees  have  graduate  courses  on  the  letters  or  the 
science  side,  known  respectively  as  "  higher  rhetoric  "  or 
"  special  mathematics,"  which  train  boys  for  the  higher 
normal  school  or  some  one  of  the  various  engineering  schools 
that  are  supported  by  the  government.  Entrance  to  these 
schools  is  entirely  through  competitive  examination,  and 
many  of  the  foremost  intellectual  leaders  of  France  during 
the  last  century  have  issued  through  their  portals. 

FRENCH   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS  — BOYS 

WEEKLY  PROGRAM  —  REGULATIONS   OF   1902-1912 

Preparatory  Division 
I  YEAR  II  YEAR 

HRS.  HRS. 

French 9        French       9 

Moral  and  civic  instruction  1  Moral  and  civic  instruction  x 

Writing 2%  Modern  languages  ....       2 

Simple  history  stories    .     .     .     i        Writing 2^ 

Geography i^  Simple  history  stories  ...       i 

Arithmetic 3        Geography i^ 

Nature  study i        Arithmetic 3 

Drawing i        Nature  study i 

Singing i        Drawing i 

Singing i 

Total 20  Total ^cT 

1  This  instruction  will  be  given  in  connection  with  the  instruction  in  French, 
history,  and  geography,  and  is  included  in  the  time  assigned  to  these  subjects. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


81 


Elementary   Division 

(Eighth  and  seventh  forms) 


Has. 
7 


French 

Moral  and  civic  instruction  l 

Modern  languages 2 

Writing i 

History  and  geography 3 

Arithmetic 4 

Nature  study i 

Drawing i 

Singing _r_ 

Total 20 

1  This  instruction  will  be  given  in  connection  with  the  instruction  in  French, 
history,  and  geography,  and  is  included  in  the  time  assigned  to  these  subjects. 

First  Cycle 
(Length,  four  years ;  from  the  sixth  to  the  third  form  inclusive) 


DIVISION  A 


French  and  Latin  .  , 
Modern  languages  .  . 
History  and  geography 

Arithmetic 

Natural  science 


Drawing 2 

Total 23 


DIVISION  B 
Sixth  Form 

HRS.  HRS. 

10      French         6 

5      Modern  languages     ....  5 

3      History  and  geography       .     .  3 

2      Arithmetic 3 

i      Natural  science 2 

Drawing 2 

Writing        i 

Total 23" 


Fifth  Form 


French  and  Latin 
Modern  languages     . 
History  and  geography 
Arithmetic  . 


HRS. 
10 

5 
3 

2 


HRS. 
6 


Natural  science i 

Drawing 2 

Total    .  23 


French    

Modern  languages     ....  5 

History  and  geography  ...  3 
Mathematics  and  mechanical 

drawing 4 

Natural  science i 

Drawing 2 

Writing        _i 

Total    .  22 


82 


Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


DIVISION  A 


DIVISION  B 


Fourth  Form 

WITH  WITHOUT 
GREEK,  GREEK, 
HRS.        HRS. 


Literary  instruction : 

Ethics,  French,  Latin  10 

Greek 3 

Modern  languages     .     .  3 

History  and  geography  3 

Mathematics    ....  2 

Natural  science  i 


Drawing 
Totals 


Literary  instruction : 
10          Ethics,  French 


HRS. 
6 


4      Modern  languages  ....  4 

3      History  and  geography     .     .  3 
2      Mathematics,     bookkeeping, 

and  geometrical  drawing   .  4^ 

1  Natural  science        ....  i 
Physics  and  chemistry      .     .  i| 

2  Drawing 2 l 

22  Total  22 


One  hour  for  mechanical  drawing. 


Third  Form 


WITH  WITHOUT 
GREEK,  GREEK, 
HRS.  HRS. 


Literary  instruction : 

Ethics,  French,  Latin  n 

Greek 3 

Modern  languages     .     .  3 

History  and  geography  3 

Mathematical  science    .  3 

Drawing i 


Totals 


Literary  instruction : 
Ethics,  French 


HRS. 


7 


Modern  languages   ....  5 
History  and  geography     .     .  3 
Mathematics   and   geometri- 
cal drawing 4 

Physics  and  chemistry      .     .  2\ 

Natural  science        ....  i 

Bookkeeping 1 

Drawing 2 

Total       24! 


1  One  hour  optional  for  practical  bookkeeping  in  schools  where  its  local  use- 
fulness is  recognized  by  formal  vote  of  the  regular  teaching  staff  in  general 
assembly. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


Second  Cycle 

(Length,  three  years;    from  the  second  to  the  philosophy-mathe- 
matics form  inclusive) 

Second  Form 


SECTION  A 

SECTION  B 

SECTION  C 

SECTION  D 

Latin- 
Greek 

Latin- 
Modern 
Languages 

Latin- 
Science 

Science- 
Modern 
Languages 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

r  .,            .               f  French 
Literary  mstruc- 
<  Latin    .     . 

tinn 

4  1 

4     }  13 

4  }« 

4    J 

«}* 

4  J 

4 

iiun                      •.-,        i 

(  Greek   .     . 

5    J 

- 

- 

- 

History     (  Modern  history  . 

2    1 

2    1 

21 

2     1 

and       {  Ancient  history  . 

i*>4i 

i*}  4 

-3 

3 

geography  {  Geography      .     . 

I  J 

i  J 

i  J 

I     J 

2  1 

2  .} 

Modern  languages     .... 

2 

it     7 

2 

ii    7 

42J 

42J 

Mathematics   

2 

2 

yl1    4 

42 

4l4 

Physics  and  chemistry  .     .     . 

- 

- 

>!• 

o1  5 

22 

Science  laboratory    .... 

- 

- 

2 

2 

Drawing      

2 

2 

2)43 

2     U' 

2   J   4 

2      J4 

Totals  

23l 

23£ 

26 

27 

1  One  hour  in  Sections  B  and  D  for  the  language  studied  in  the  first  cycle. 
-  Four  hours  for  the  second  language. 

3  Two  hours  for  mechanical  drawing. 

4  Mathematics  instruction  occupies  five  hours  up  to  February  isth,  and  four 
hours  after  that  date. 

5  Chemistry  instruction  occupies  one  hour  up  to  February  i5th,  and  two  hours 
after  that  date. 


84 


Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


First  Form 


SECTION  A 

SECTION  B 

SECTION  C 

SECTION  D 

Latin- 
Greek 

Latin- 
Modern 
Languages 

Latin- 
Science 

Science- 
Modern 
Languages 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

French 

4 

4     1, 

*U 

4 

Literary  instruc- 

Latin    .     . 
Latin,  extra 

3 
14 

3  r 

3l7 

tion 

hours 

a 

-          2* 

_ 

_ 

Greek    .     . 

sJ 

- 

- 

- 

History    f  Modern  history 

2) 

2      1 

2] 

2     1 

and       {  Ancient  history 

25 

2      5 

-3 

3 

geography  1  Geography   .     .     . 

ij 

i    J 

ij 

I     j 

2    1 

2     1 

Modern  languages 

2 

iM  7 

2 

i1  >  7 

i  / 
42J 

1  ' 
42J 

Mathematics 

2+2* 

2+2* 

e 

C 

Physics  and  chemistry     .     .     . 

0 

3 

o 
3 

Science  laboratory 

- 

- 

2 

2 

Drawing   . 

-         2* 

-          2* 

21       3 
2)4 

Llk 

Totals    .     . 

23  +4* 

21   +6* 

26 

28 

*  Optional. 

1  One  hour  in  Sections  B  and  D  for  the  language  studied  in  the  first  cycle. 

2  Four  hours  for  the  second  language. 

3  Two  hours  for  mechanical  drawing. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 

Philosophy  and  Mathematics  Forms 


PHILOSOPHY 

MATHEMATICS 

Section  A 

Section  B 

Section  A 

Section  B 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Hrs. 

Philosophy  

89 

gi 

7 

Greek-Latin     

4* 

Latin       

2* 

Modern  languages     .     .     . 

2* 

fl 

2 

(I 

U1 

U' 

History  and  geography 

at 

32 

3* 

71 

32 

3* 

Mathematics    

2* 

2* 

8 

82 

Cosmography  

1 

2 

^ 

- 

- 

Physics  and  chemistry  .     . 

5 

5 

5 

5 

Natural  science     .... 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Science  laboratory     .     .     . 

- 

- 

2 

2 

Drawing       

2* 

2* 

I2+  2*3 

I2  +  2*3 

Hygiene  (12  lectures  of  one 

hour  each  4)       .... 

- 

- 

- 

- 

Totals  

IQ|  +  10* 

22|  +6* 

26£  +  2* 

27I   +  2* 

*  Optional. 

1  The  pupils  have  the  right  to  select  for  themselves  the  distribution  of  these 
two  hours. 

2  Mechanical  drawing. 

3  Ornamental  design  is  optional. 

4  These  lectures  are  included  in  the  natural  science  instruction. 

Baccalaureate  Degree.  —  The  natural  culmination  of  the 
course  at  a  French  lycee  or  college  is  the  baccalaureate.  This 
is  purely  a  degree  of  secondary  education,  consequently  differ- 
ing materially  from  our  corresponding  degree.  It  is  not  easy 
to  evaluate  the  American  and  the  French  degrees  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  standardization  notorious  in  this  country.  The 
French  degree,  however,  stands  for  a  very  definite  intellec- 
tual attainment,  the  degree  from  Lille,  Poitiers,  or  Marseille 
being  accounted  as  high  as  that  from  Paris.  It  represents  a 


86  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

measure  of  attainment  which  would  probably  be  reached 
about  midway  of  the  course  at  the  better  American  colleges. 
In  France,  the  bachelor's  degree  is  the  sole  passport  to  the 
university  and  so  to  all  grades  of  higher  education.  Each 
academy  has  its  own  baccalaureate  examination  commission 
whose  members  are  drawn  from  university  and  secondary 
ranks  in  substantially  equal  numbers.  Thus  the  examina- 
tion fulfils  the  double  purpose  of  checking  up  the  work  of  the 
schools  and  at  the  same  time  of  determining  the  candidate's 
fitness  to  undertake  university  study.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  it  is  rather  a  serious  ordeal,  for  the  mortality  is  very 
great,  something  over  40  per  cent  of  the  candidates  suc- 
ceeding at  the  first  part  of  the  examination,  and  about  60 
per  cent  at  the  second.  At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  recog- 
nized that  the  leaving- school  problem  is  not  so  acute  in  the 
French  secondary  schools  as  it  is  in  America.  With  us  there 
is  a  considerable  dropping  out  all  along  the  line,  while  in 
France  the  very  great  majority  complete  the  course,  and  the 
mortality  is  largely  concentrated  at  the  end  at  the  time  of  the 
baccalaureate  examination. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  two  parts  of  the 
examination,  which  are  separated  by  an  academic  year. 
There  are  two  sessions  in  each  part  per  year,  one  in  July  and 
the  other  in  October.  The  candidate  who  fails  in  July  may 
come  up  again  the  next  fall.  Taking  these  facts  into  con- 
sideration and  remembering  that  the  candidates  at  the  second 
part  one  year  are  restricted  to  those  who  were  successful  at 
the  previous  session,  it  will  appear  that  between  55  and  60 
per  cent  of  those  who  really  come  up  for  the  examination 
finally  secure  the  coveted  honor.  The  total  number  of  bache- 
lors in  1910  was  7063  and  in  1912  was  7264.  Since  1902 
there  has  been  only  one  baccalaureate,  the  former  degrees 
in  letters  and  science  being  no  longer  granted.  The  certifi- 
cate given  for  successful  passage  of  the  first  part  bears  the 
mention  Latin-Greek,  Latin-modern-language,  Latin-science, 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  87 

or  science-modern-language,  but  no  one  possesses  any  official 
advantage  over  any  other.  Success  in  the  second  or  final 
part  carries  with  it  the  baccalaureate  degree,  with  the  men- 
tion philosophy,  or  mathematics,  the  chief  point  to  note  being 
that  there  is  only  one  degree.  The  value  is  the  same  for  all, 
whether  the  holder  intends  to  enter  the  arts  faculty,  the 
science  faculty,  the  law  school,  the  medical  school,  or  an 
engineering  school. 

School  Population.  —  In  the  year  1913  there  were  in 
lycees  for  boys  and  236  communal  colleges  in  France  and  Al- 
geria, containing  about  58,000  and  37,000  pupils,  respectively. 
Few  of  the  former  are  outside  the  capitals  of  the  departments, 
while  practically  all  the  latter  are  in  cities  of  less  importance. 
In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  Paris,  no  city  has  both  a  lycee  and 
a  college.  The  number  of  the  lycees  as  well  as  their  population 
is  increasing  slowly  from  year  to  year,  rather  more  rapidly, 
indeed,  than  the  population  of  the  country.  In  spite  of  the 
dispersion  of  the  congregations  and  the  suppression  of  the 
schools  under  control  of  the  religious  bodies,  the  successors 
of  these  schools  under  private  control  still  contain  nearly  as 
many  pupils  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  lycees.  The  graduates 
of  these  private  schools,  however,  must  pass  the  baccalaureate 
examination  given  by  the  state  in  order  to  enter  the  university 
or  any  of  the  higher  state  institutions  of  learning. 

Boarding  Schools.  —  One  striking  characteristic  that  differ- 
entiates the  state  secondary  schools  in  France  from  those  in 
any  other  country  is  the  fact  that  they  are  boarding  schools. 
This  is  another  heritage  from  the  Jesuit  colleges,  although, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  general  scheme  far  antedates  the 
Jesuits  themselves,  for  the  original  university  colleges  in 
France  were  all  boarding  schools.  Of  late  years,  this  resi- 
dential feature  has  evidently  been  falling  into  disfavor,  for 
not  only  are  the  boarding  pupils  not  keeping  pace  with  the 
growth  of  the  schools,  but  their  numbers  are  actually  decreas- 
ing. In  1885  there  were  25,000  pupils  living  in  the  lycees, 


88  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

while  by  1908,  this  number  had  fallen  to  17,000,  and  to-day 
they  are  probably  fewer  still.  Boarding  departments  in  the 
colleges  show  the  same  tendency,  although  the  losses  here 
have  not  been  so  striking.  While  boarding-school  life  has  its 
advantages,  one  can  readily  understand  why  French  parents 
should  be  less  and  less  willing  to  subject  their  sons  to  the 
almost  cloistral  seclusion  in  the  cold  stone  "  barracks  "  of  a 
city  school.  The  more  rural  character  of  the  college  loca- 
tions together  with  the  opportunity  of  living  a  freer  life  is 
partly  responsible  for  the  fact  that  the  depopulation  of  the 
residential  departments  of  the  colleges  has  not  proceeded 
so  rapidly  as  in  the  case  of  the  lycees.  In  addition  to  the 
boarding  pupils,  one  finds  in  each  school  half-boarders,  super- 
vised study  pupils,  and  day  pupils.  The  half-boarders  are 
subjected  to  the  same  regime  as  the  residential  pupils,  save 
that  they  have  the  evening  meal  and  sleep  at  home.  They 
may  come  to  school  as  early  as  six  or  half-past  six  in  the  morn- 
ing. The  supervised  day  pupils  do  all  their  studying  in  the 
study  halls  of  the  school  under  the  same  supervision  as  the 
first  two  classes  of  pupils.  The  day  pupils  are  at  the  school 
only  for  the  regular  class  work. 

Teaching  Force.  —  The  residential  feature  of  French  second- 
ary schools  necessitates  an  elaborate  administrative  organiza- 
tion to  meet  this  special  condition.  Each  lycee  is  in  charge  of 
a  proviseur  or  headmaster,  who  is  managing  director  as  well 
as  educational  head  of  the  institution.  He  is  assisted  by  a 
censor  whose  official  title  is  "  censor  of  studies,"  but  whose 
chief  function  is  that  of  discipline  master.  The  censor  looks 
after  attendance,  transmits  all  reports  from  the  class  teachers 
to  the  headmaster,  and  is  in  general  charge  of  the  boys  while 
they  are  within  the  school  precincts.  A  third  general  adminis- 
trative officer  is  the  econome,  or  bursar,  who  is  the  business 
manager  and  financial  agent  of  the  school. 

The  brunt  of  the  teaching  burden  is  borne  by  the  regular 
teaching  force,  professeurs,  as  well  equipped  a  body  of  men  on 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  89 

the  whole  as  is  to  be  found  in  any  secondary  system  in  the 
world.  This  staff  in  the  lycees  is  really  of  superior  type,  for 
only  agreges  are  appointed  to  these  positions.  The  agregation 
is  a  title,  a  kind  of  diploma,  which  not  only  stands  for  a  high 
degree  of  scholarship,  but  also  indicates  that  the  holder  is  one 
of  the  ten  or  a  dozen  best  men  in  his  subject  in  France  that 
year,  as  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  has  come  out  toward  the 
head  of  a  list  in  a  national  competitive  examination.  There 
are  eight  orders  of  agregation  :  philosophy,  letters,  grammar, 
history  and  .geography,  modern  language,  mathematics, 
physical  science  (physics  and  chemistry),  and  natural  science, 
corresponding  to  the  various  departments  of  learning  repre- 
sented in  the  secondary  school  program  of  studies.  Most 
of  these  terms  are  sufficiently  self-explanatory  to  need  no 
further  comment.  The  work  of  the  agreges  in  letters  and 
grammar  is  essentially  the  same,  each  one  having  to  teach 
French,  Latin,  and,  when  necessary,  Greek.  In  the  main, 
the  letters  men  receive  appointments  in  the  classes  of  the 
first  cycle,  and  the  grammar  men  in  those  of  the  second  cycle, 
These  eight  orders  of  agreges  delimit  exactly  the  fields  of 
the  departmental  teaching.  Such  a  high  degree  of  specializa- 
tion is  provided  for  and  observed  in  the  French  lycee  that  it 
would  be  as  unthinkable  for  the  agrege  in  history  and  geography 
to  teach  a  class  in  elementary  mathematics,  as  for  the  professor 
in  chemistry  in  an  American  state  university  to  take  a  first- 
grade  class  in  the  university  practice  school.  It  is  largely  by 
differentiating  the  various  fields  of  instruction  and  in  keeping 
them  distinct  that  the  French  schools  have  been  able  to  develop 
such  an  effective  teaching  staff.  They  are  careful,  however, 
not  to  run  to  too  narrow  specialization,  for  it  is  relatively  rare 
that  even  an  agrege  teaches  but  a  single  subject.  This  is 
only  true  in  the  case  of  philosophy  and  modern  languages.  A 
man  is  agrege  in  English,  or  German,  or  Italian,  or  Spanish, 
and  the  like,  and  he  must  confine  himself  to  his  specialty. 
It  is  immaterial  how  many  teachers  there  may  be  in  the  school, 


QO  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

one  is  never  allowed  to  teach  only  Latin,  or  French,  or  history, 
or  geography.  The  letters  or  grammar  man  must  have 
French  and  Latin ;  the  history  man  must  teach  history  and 
geography ;  the  physical  science  man,  physics  and  chemistry ; 
the  natural  science  man,  botany,  zoology,  and  geology ;  and 
the  mathematics  man  must  handle  mathematics  as  a  whole, 
and  not  break  it  up  arbitrarily  into  the  smaller  fields  so  familiar 
in  the  United  States,  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonom- 
etry, and  the  like.  In  this  way  the  French  seem  to  have 
limited  the  field  of  the  teacher's  work  to  a  small  enough  area 
to  insure  a  mastery  of  the  subject,  and  yet  have  avoided  the 
other  extreme  of  narrow  specialization.  All  agreges  may 
fairly  be  assumed  to  have  covered  an  elementary  and  second- 
ary course  of  twelve  years ;  to  have  spent  from  one  to  three 
or  more  years  in  advanced  study  beyond  the  secondary  school 
course  by  way  of  preparation  for  the  competitive  examina- 
tion for  entrance  to  the  higher  normal  school ;  and  then  to 
have  studied  for  three  years  (four  in  the  case  of  the  science 
men)  in  a  professional  school  before  coming  up  for  the  agrega- 
tion.  The  quality  of  the  men  who  have  survived  this  ordeal, 
with  its  various  hazards,  failure  to  negotiate  any  one  of  which 
means  disaster,  cannot  be  gainsaid. 

The  regular  teachers  in  the  colleges  do  not  measure  up  to 
this  high  standard,  for  they  are  required  to  hold  nothing  more 
than  the  master's  degree,  for  which  of  course  the  element  of 
competition  is  lacking.  In  both  lycees  and  colleges  some  of 
the  classes  are  intrusted  to  acting  teachers,  whose  qualifica- 
tions are  somewhat  inferior  to  those  of  the  regular  teachers 
in  the  corresponding  positions.  There  are  roughly  rather 
more  than  five  regular  appointees  to  two  acting  teachers  in 
the  secondary  schools  as  a  whole.  In  addition  to  these  two 
classes  of  teachers,  there  are  instructors  of  the  elementary 
classes  as  well  as  special  teachers  of  drawing  and  gymnastics. 

The  aforementioned  groups  constitute  the  teaching  force 
proper  of  the  schools.  Specialization  in  the  French  schools 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  91 

again  comes  to  the  fore  to  the  extent  that  the  teachers  do 
nothing  but  teach.  They  come  to  school  to  meet  their  classes, 
and  the  moment  the  lessons  are  over,  their  responsibility 
ceases.  Supervision  of  study  rooms  and  other  work  of  a  more 
or  less  police-like  character  are  not  among  their  duties. 
Special  groups  of  people  are  employed  for  this  exclusive  pur- 
pose. Tutors  (repetiteurs)  are  on  duty  all  day  long  to  look 
after  the  boys  during  recreations  and  meal  times,  and  to 
supervise  them  during  the  study  hours  in  rooms  set  apart  for 
that  purpose ;  while  from  dinner  time  at  night  until  after 
breakfast  the  next  morning,  surveillants  are  constantly  with 
the  boys.  Every  moment  that  the  boy  is  in  school,  he  is 
under  the  personal  charge  of  some  regularly  appointed  officer. 
Not  only  do  the  residential  pupils  lead  lives  of  perfect  regu- 
larity, where  the  opportunity  for  wasting  time  is  reduced  to 
a  minimum,  but  thanks  to  the  supervision  of  their  study 
periods  they  are  able  to  attack  their  work  intelligently  and  in 
the  most  telling  fashion. 

Salaries.  —  The  question  of  teachers'  salaries  is  so  com- 
plicated as  to  make  any  generalization  convey  but  an  im- 
perfect idea  of  the  actual  situation.  Every  order  of  teachers 
in  the  entire  system,  whether  it  be  headmasters  in  Paris,  or 
headmasters  in  the  provinces,  regular  professors  in  either  of 
these  two  areas,  acting  professors,  professors  of  drawing, 
tutors,  and  the  like,  is  divided  into  six  classes.  An  appoint- 
ment to  any  one  of  these  orders  means  beginning  in  the  lowest 
class  with  the  assurance  of  rising  regularly  in  accordance  with 
a  very  definite  scale  of  advancement.  A  new  salary  schedule 
went  into  effect  in  1911-1912  which  raised  salaries  all  along 
the  line  about  five  hundred  francs  in  each  instance,  but  pro- 
vided for  the  present  incumbents  reaching  the  new  standard 
in  five  or  six  years.  Under  this  revised  scale,  the  salaries 
of  regular  professors  in  Paris  range  from  5500  to  9000  francs, 
with  an  additional  500  francs  to  each  agrege.  The  correspond- 
ing figures  in  the  provincial  lycees  run  from  3700  to  6700 


92  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

francs.  Headmasters  are  reckoned  in  the  same  category 
with  the  regular  professors,  but  they  receive  from  2000  to 
4000  francs  additional  for  their  services  as  directors.  Taking 
everything  into  consideration,  the  highest  salary  it  is  possible 
for  a  Paris  headmaster  to  receive  is  13,000  francs  ($2700). 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  highest  salary  actually  paid  in  Paris 
in  1910  was  11,000  francs.  Even  keeping  in  mind  that  the 
headmaster  has  no  house  rent  to  pay  and  receives  certain 
allowances  for  light  and  heat,  this  income  still  falls  far  short  of 
what  men  in  corresponding  positions  in  this  country  receive. 
When  the  different  standards  of  living  in  the  two  countries 
are  evaluated,  however,  the  American  headmaster's  advantage 
begins  to  disappear,  and  when  cognizance  is  taken  of  the  social 
and  academic  standing  of  the  two  men,  the  relative  position 
of  the  two  as  expressed  in  our  first  comparison  becomes  quite 
reversed.  Security  of  tenure  together  with  the  assurance 
of  a  retiring  pension  makes  the  advantage  in  the  case  of  the 
French  headmaster  even  more  pronounced.  The  situation 
of  the  regular  professor  is  not  quite  so  fortunate,  for  his  salary 
is  less  than  that  of  his  headmaster,  and  he  must  provide  his 
own  living  accommodations,  but  all  things  considered  his  lot 
is  a  happy  one.  Secure  in  his  position  beyond  the  reach  of 
any  political  or  other  malignant  influence,  with  certain  though 
perhaps  slow  promotion  before  him,  possessed  of  sufficient 
leisure  to  provide  for  his  own  spiritual  and  professional  growth, 
confident  in  the  assurance  of  a  retiring  pension  awaiting  him, 
and  able  to  live  comfortably  within  his  means,  the  lot  of  a 
French  secondary  teacher  is  almost  to  be  envied.  His  school 
duties  are  certainly  not  onerous.  There  is  a  regularly  arranged 
schedule  showing  the  amount  of  teaching  required  of  each 
class  of  teacher.  In  Paris  this  varies  from  ten  to  sixteen  hours 
per  week  in  the  secondary  classes  proper,  while  in  the  provinces 
it  runs  slightly  higher.  Two  hours  additional  may  be  de- 
manded of  anybody,  but  for  that  extra  remuneration  is  granted. 
Further  supplementary  hours  are  entirely  at  the  discretion  of 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  93 

the  teacher,  but  opportunities  are  not  lacking  to  add  to  one's 
income  in  this  way. 

School  Fees.  —  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  secondary  schools  of  France  are  all  fee  schools. 
Instruction  in  every  kind  of  a  primary  school  is  free,  but  in 
all  grades  of  secondary  schools  tuition  is  charged.  This 
varies  so  widely  that  averages  would  tell  only  partial  truths. 
The  schools  all  over  the  country  are  carefully  classified  and 
the  charges  graded  for  each  of  the  four  categories  of  pupils 
in  every  form  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  In  Paris  the 
fees  for  the  beginning  pupils  of  the  infant  class  range  from 
90  francs  per  annum  for  the  day  pupils  to  goo  francs  for  the 
boarding  pupils,  while  in  the  highest  forms  the  corresponding 
figures  run  from  650  to  1650  francs.  In  the  provincial  lycees 
the  fees  range  from  40  francs  to  700  francs  for  the  infant 
class,  and  from  320  to  1250  francs  for  the  top  form.  The 
highest  figure  quoted  here,  1650  francs  ($330),  seems  little 
enough  for  the  total  yearly  expense,  including  board,  room, 
tuition,  and  other  fees,  in  the  best  secondary  schools  in 
France. 

Budget.  —  In  view  of  the  amount  of  the  school  fees,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  expenses  of  the  government  are  con- 
siderably more  than  the  receipts.  It  is  interesting  to  note, 
however,  that  the  boarding  department  succeeds  far  better 
than  the  day  pupils'  department,  the  former  contributing 
nearly  95  per  cent  of  the  boarding  expense  account,  whereas 
the  day  pupils  pay  only  a  little  more  than  half  of  what  they 
cost  the  state.  In  1903,  the  amount  carried  on  the  budget 
to  make  up  the  deficit  in  the  day-pupil  department  was  seven 
and  a  quarter  millions  of  francs,  as  opposed  to  only  one  million 
in  the  case  of  the  residential  pupils.  In  1910,  the  former  figure 
had  risen  to  8,400,000  francs,  while  the  latter  had  dropped  to 
584,000  francs.  According  to  the  budget  of  1903,  the  total 
expense  to  the  state  for  secondary  education  over  and  above 
what  it  received  from  fees  and  the  like  amounted  to  about 


94  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

25,800,500  francs  —  two  and  a  quarter  millions  of  francs 
for  girls'  schools,  eighteen  and  three  quarters  millions  for 
boys'  schools,  and  the  balance  for  administration,  central 
office  charges,  scholarships,  and  other  allied  expenses.  From 
time  to  time,  attempts  have  been  made  to  abolish  fees  in 
secondary  schools,  but  since  under  the  present  system  sec- 
ondary education  is  absorbing  nearly  12  per  cent  of  the 
entire  budget  of  the  education  department  in  addition  to  the 
receipts  from  tuition  fees,  there  is  little  probability  of  this 
happening  in  the  immediate  future. 

EDUCATION  OF  GIRLS.  —  Until  within  a  single  genera- 
tion, public  secondary  education  for  girls  has  not  figured  in 
French  social  life.  The  passage  of  the  law  providing  for  es- 
tablishing secondary  schools  for  girls  at  state  expense  was  one 
of  the  most  significant  acts  of  the  period  from  1879  to  1882, 
which  may  fairly  be  called  the  French  modern  educational 
renaissance.  In  May,  1907,  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of 
the  opening  of  the  first  lycee  for  girls  was  celebrated  in  Paris 
with  fitting  ceremonial.  This  whole  movement  for  girls' 
education  is  distinctly  modern  in  its  character,  and  it  has 
therefore  been  free  from  the  incubus  of  tradition  which  has 
certainly  more  than  once  hampered  the  development  of  boys' 
schools.  M.  Greard  expressed  this  very  suggestively  when 
he  said :  "  Boys'  secondary  instruction  had  its  traditions. 
Girls'  secondary  education  lent  itself  much  more  easily  to 
novelties,  being  itself  a  novelty."  This  situation  became 
apparent  more  than  once  during  the  parliamentary  debates 
upon  the  bill  providing  for  the  creation  of  these  girls'  schools. 
In  the  first  place,  they  are  exclusively  day  schools,  although 
municipal  or  individual  initiative  not  infrequently  conducts 
boarding  departments  in  conjunction  therewith.  In  the 
second  place,  the  whole  constitution  of  the  program  of  studies 
reflects  a  decidedly  "  modern  "  educational  point  of  view. 
This  latter  characteristic  will  be  more  evident  in  the  con- 
sideration of  the  subjects  of  instruction. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  95 

Girls'  secondary  schools  fall  into  three  general  categories : 
state  lycees,  communal  colleges,  and  secondary  courses  es- 
tablished by  local  authorities  with  the  moral  and  in  some  cases 
financial  support  of  the  state.  These  three  categories  represent 
steps  in  the  evolution  of  individual  institutions,  for  practically 
every  new  lycee  created  within  the  last  few  years  has  passed 
through  these  three  stages,  beginning  as  a  secondary  course, 
being  transformed  into  a  college,  and  thence  into  a  lycee. 
The  secondary  courses  hardly  merit  the  name  "  schools,"  for 
they  lack  the  organization  that  such  a  term  implies,  nor  can 
they  be  looked  upon  as  permanent  foundations.  The  appella- 
tion "  course  "  is  sufficiently  descriptive.  They  are  ordinarily 
in  charge  of  directresses,  with  a  teaching  force  drawn  from 
the  staffs  of  the  boys'  lycees  or  colleges  in  the  neighborhood. 
No  fixed  program  of  study  is  prescribed  for  them,  although 
the  government  offers  certain  official  recognition  in  granting 
a  diploma  for  successful  completion  of  the  work.  This  course 
prepares  specifically  for  the  two  lowest  diplomas  required  for 
teaching  in  elementary  schools  and  for  admission  to  the  girls' 
higher  normal  school  at  Sevres. 

In  1913  there  were  52  lycees  for  girls,  81  colleges,  and  50 
secondary  courses  in  France  and  Algeria.  Six  years  before 
there  were  49  lycees,  61  colleges,  and  63  secondary  courses. 
The  number  of  lycees  has  probably  about  reached  a  state  of 
equilibrium.  Secondary  courses  have  been  steadily  decreas- 
ing in  number  since  1887,  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  or- 
dinarily looked  upon  as  temporary  expedients,  but  the  loss 
here  has  been  more  than  balanced  by  the  gain  in  the  number 
of  colleges.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  lycees  are  the  least 
numerous,  they  are  by  far  the  largest,  judged  on  the  basis  of 
school  population.  The  total  number  of  girls  in  these  three 
types  of  schools  is  not  far  from  35,000  pupils. 

Organization.  —  Girls'  lycees  and  colleges  bear  the  same 
relation  to  each  other  that  prevails  in  the  case  of  the  corre- 
sponding boys'  schools.  They  are  organized  much  more 


96  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

effectively  than  are  the  girls'  secondary  courses,  although  they 
are  quite  unlike  the  boys'  schools.  The  course  is  arranged 
on  a  five-year  basis,  instead  of  seven  as  in  the  case  of  the  boys. 
Preparatory  training  is  provided  in  elementary  classes  attached 
to  the  school,  but  the  pupils  do  not  enter  here  until  they  are 
eight  years  of  age.  This  defers  admission  to  the  secondary 
school  proper  until  twelve,  and  allows  the  whole  course  to  be 
completed  by  the  time  the  girl  has  reached  her  seventeenth 
year.  The  regular  five-year  course  is  divided  into  two  parts, 
one  of  three  years  and  the  other  of  two,  with  a  sixth  year,  found 
in  only  a  few  of  the  more  important  lycees,  which  prepares 
specifically  for  the  higher  normal  school  for  girls. 

Program  of  Studies.  —  The  subjects  of  instruction  for  the 
first  part  of  the  course  include :  (i)  ethics ;  (2)  French ; 
(3)  modern  languages ;  (4)  history ;  (5)  geography ;  (6)  mathe- 
matics ;  (7)  natural  history ;  (8)  physics  and  chemistry ; 
(9)  domestic  economy  and  hygiene;  (10)  sewing;  (u)  draw- 
ing; (12)  singing;  and  (13)  gymnastics.  To  these  must  be 
added  in  the  second  part  of  the  course :  (i)  psychology ; 
(2)  ancient  and  modern  foreign  literatures  ;  (3)  cosmography ; 
and  (4)  elements  of  common  law. 

The  program  in  full  appears  on  the  following  pages. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  characteristic  about  this  second- 
ary school  program  is  the  absence  of  the  classical  influence. 
Greek  has  never  appeared  as  a  subject  of  instruction  in  the 
girls'  schools,  but  Latin  has  been  buffeted  about  in  a  rather 
ruthless  but  interesting  fashion.  When  the  schools  were  first 
established,  Latin  figured  as  an  optional  subject  of  study, 
introduced  largely  out  of  deference  to  the  prevailing  human- 
istic influence  in  secondary  school  affairs.  In  1897  it  was 
abolished  entirely,  its  cultural  element  being  represented  by 
the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  literary  masterpieces  read  in 
the  vernacular.  It  has  recently  been  restored  as  an  optional 
subject  in  a  few  lycees,  largely  in  order  to  prepare  girls  for  the 
baccalaureate  examination. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


97 


WEEKLY   PROGRAM 

ELEMENTARY  CLASSES  OF  THE  GIRLS'  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 
(Hours  per  week) 


SUBJECTS 

INFANT 

CLASS 
8-9  YRS. 

i 

9-10  YRS. 

II 

io-ii  YHS. 

III 

ii-iz  YRS. 

French       

6* 

6| 

6J 

6* 

Modern  languages  
History      

a| 

i 

a* 

i 

*J 

i 

4 

i 

Geography     

i 

i 

i 

i 

Arithmetic     

a4 

ai 

2-1 

Nature  study     
Needlework  

* 

l 

2 
* 

i 

2 

* 

1 
2 
* 

Drawing   

* 

* 

* 

* 

*  No  definite  amount  of  time  specified. 

GIRLS'  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS  —  FIRST,  SECOND,  AND  THIRD  YEARS 
(Hours  per  week) 

YEARS 


i 

II 

III 

Ethics      

I 

French  language  and  literature 
Modern  languages      .... 
History    

5 
3 

2 

5 
3 

2 

si 

3 

2 

Geography    

I 

I 

I 

Mathematics     

2 

2 

2 

Natural  history      
Physics  and  chemistry    .     .     . 
Domestic  economy  and  hygiene 

Sewing     

I 
2 

I 
2 

2 
12 

2 

lectures  of  one 
hour  each 
]  minimum 

Drawing  

2 

2 

2 

!    time  for 

Singing     

I 

I 

I 

f    each  subject 

Gymnastics  

xi 

I* 

a 

per  year 

Totals    

2O| 

2  of 

21 

98 


Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  YEARS 


REQUIRED  SUBJECTS 


YEARS 


IV 


Ethics i 

Psychology  applied  to  ethics  and  education  ...  2 

French  language  and  literature 3  2 

Ancient  literatures i 

Modern  foreign  literatures i 

Modern  languages 3  3 

History 2  2 

Geography i  i 

Mathematics J* 

Common  law 

Physics it 

Physics  and  chemistry 1        -  2 

Animal   and   vegetable   anatomy  and  physiology, 

hygiene i  i 

Totals 14  15 

OPTIONAL  SUBJECTS 

Mathematics 2  2 

Additional  modern  language 2  2 

Sewing 2 

Drawing 2f  2J 

Singing if  if 

Gymnastics i| 

Totals 10^  10-2 

Grand  totals 24^  252 


i  hour  for  one  semester. 


f  Minimum. 


School  Population.  —  The  population  of  the  girls'  second- 
ary schools  represents  a  distinctly  different  cross  section  of 
society  from  that  of  the  boys',  and  in  the  main  attends  school 
with  a  different  purpose  in  view.  For  the  boy,  the  secondary 
school  is  a  cultural  institution,  but  one  that  has  a  distinctly 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  99 

professional  bent.  In  other  words,  he  goes  there  chiefly  in 
order  that  he  may  thereby  pass  into  the  law  school,  the  medical 
school,  the  arts  or  science  faculty,  or  the  government  engineer- 
ing schools,  in  nearly  every  case  with  a  professional  career 
in  prospect.  With  the  girls,  however,  a  relatively  small 
number  has  teaching  or  any  other  professional  calling  in  mind. 
Much  less  do  the  pupils  of  these  girls'  schools  look  forward 
to  entering  the  ranks  of  the  industrial  or  commercial  army. 
Consequently,  one  is  not  surprised  to  find  that  the  majority 
of  the  girls  in  these  secondary  schools  drop  out  at  the  end  of 
the  first  part  of  the  course,  having  continued  thus  far  with  a 
purely  general  cultural  aim  in  view. 

Academic  Distinctions.  —  There  are  two  academic  rewards 
in  girls'  secondary  schools  :  the  certificate  of  secondary  studies 
at  the  end  of  the  third  year ;  and  the  diploma  (diplome  de  fin 
(T etudes}  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  year.  These  are  awarded  on 
passing  set  examinations  at  these  times.  The  baccalaureate, 
which  crowns  the  work  of  the  boys'  secondary  course,  is  a 
state  examination  with  which  the  teachers  of  the  school  have 
nothing  to  do.  The  leaving  examinations  at  the  girls'  schools, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  teachers 
of  the  schools  themselves.  One  reason  for  this  perhaps  is 
that  the  possession  of  the  certificate  or  the  diploma  of  the 
girls'  schools  carries  with  it  no  particular  privilege,  not  even 
opening  the  way  to  university  study.  To  be  sure,  women 
are  admitted  to  the  university,  but  they  must  pass  through 
the  same  portal  as  the  men,  namely,  the  baccalaureate. 
Although  the  girls'  schools  as  a  whole  do  not  prepare  for  this 
degree,  no  special  consideration  is  extended  on  that  account. 
Girls  are  held  to  exactly  the  same  standards  as  boys,  and  they 
must  make  up  their  short-comings  as  best  they  may  on  the 
outside,  by  private  tutoring  or  otherwise. 

Standards  of  Teachers.  —  In  order  to  acquire  the  right  to 
regular  appointment  to  the  teaching  force  of  the  girls'  lycees, 
the  young  woman  must  complete  the  work  in  the  secondary 


ioo          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

school  system  itself,  leave  with  the  diploma  at  the  end  of  the 
course,  and  then  go  on  and  secure  the  aggregation  as  in  the 
case  of  the  boys'  schools.  This,  too,  is  taken  normally  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  course  in  the  higher  normal  school, 
although  the  standard  here  is  materially  lower  than  at  the 
corresponding  boys'  school.  The  requirements  for  regular 
appointment  in  the  colleges  and  for  appointment  as  acting 
teachers  in  the  lycees  are  the  same,  namely,  the  possession  of 
the  certificate  for  teaching  in  secondary  schools,  which  may 
be  taken  ordinarily  at  the  close  of  the  second  year  in  the 
normal  school.  This  examination  is  competitive  like  that 
for  the  agregation,  a  fact  that  goes  far  toward  assuring  a  high 
academic  standard  for  the  teaching  staff. 

Secondary  education  for  girls  is  subject  to  tuition  fees  as 
is  the  boys',  although  it  does  not  constitute  such  a  drain  upon 
the  exchequer  of  the  state.  In  fact  some  of  the  lycees  are 
nearly  if  not  quite  self-supporting.  Nevertheless  the  state 
is  compelled  annually  to  make  a  considerable  appropriation 
for  the  support  of  these  girls'  schools.  In  1910  the  sum  thus 
expended  amounted  to  about  three  and  a  half  million  francs. 

General  Characteristics.  —  While  the  reform  plan  adopted 
in  1902  and  the  modifications  since  effected  have  not  given 
universal  satisfaction,  the  secondary  school  situation  in 
France  is  probably  more  nearly  in  a  state  of  equilibrium 
than  in  any  one  of  the  other  four  leading  nations.  Within 
the  last  generation  the  progress  achieved  has  been  little 
short  of  remarkable.  To-day  scarcely  anybody  is  shut  out 
from  enjoying  its  privileges  on  account  of  lack  of  school 
facilities.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  the 
presence  of  fees  in  all  secondary  schools  puts  them  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  but  this  is  delib- 
erate on  the  part  of  the  educational  authorities.  The  United 
States  is  the  only  nation  in  the  world  which  offers  univer- 
sal free  secondary  education.  The  older  nations  are  or- 
ganized on  a  decidedly  aristocratic  basis,  and  France,  al- 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  101 

though  nominally  a  republic,  is  yet  dominated  by  the  old 
monarchical  traditions.  The  fact  that  there  are  scholarships 
available  for  the  brilliant  children  of  the  lower  social  classes 
counts  for  relatively  little  in  affecting  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion. France  believes  in  giving  everybody  sufficient  educa- 
tion to  make  him  a  useful  and  contented  participant  in  the 
work  of  the  world,  but  when  it  comes  to  training  for  leader- 
ship, she  proceeds  with  the  utmost  caution,  assuming  that 
the  great  majority  of  the  directing  classes  will  be  found  among 
those  who  are  financially  comfortable.  Any  others  must 
first  prove  their  worth  before  she  is  willing  to  expend  state 
funds  for  their  education.  From  a  pecuniary  point  of  view 
alone,  she  is  unalterably  opposed  to  offering  unlimited  free 
education,  primary,  secondary,  and  higher  to  all,  with  the 
idea  that  qualified  leaders  will  thereby  be  evolved.  This 
same  statement  might  with  equal  truth  be  made  of  Germany, 
and  to  a  less  extent  of  England  as  well.  In  France,  however, 
once  an  individual  has  demonstrated  the  unusual  character  of 
his  endowments,  the  state  cannot  do  too  much  for  him. 

GERMANY 

SOCIAL  BACKGROUND.  —  Much  of  what  has  been  said 
of  the  social  background  of  the  French  secondary  school 
system  might  well  be  repeated  in  the  case  of  Germany  with 
only  here  and  there  slight  modifications,  although  outwardly 
the  monarchical  spirit  is  even  more  pronounced  in  Germany 
than  in  France.  One  point,  however,  needs  to  be  made  clear 
at  the  outset.  As  a  factor  in  world  politics,  the  empire  pre- 
sents a  united  front,  but  when  one  examines  the  situation 
more  closely,  it  is  evident  that  this  unity  is  not  rooted  deep 
in  the  spiritual  consciousness  of  the  people.  The  foreigner 
does  not  usually  differentiate  among  the  inhabitants  of  Ber- 
lin, of  Munich,  and  of  Stuttgart,  yet  there  is  less  similarity  of 
temperament  between  the  North  German  and  the  South 

SANTA  BARBARA  COLLE2E  LIBRAOT 

^L  A.  •?  n  Q 


IO2  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

German  than  between  the  French  and  the  Belgian,  or  the 
French  and  the  Swiss  of  the  Geneva  district.  In  view  of  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  finding  anything  that  might  be  called  a 
national  type  in  Germany,  the  Prussian  conditions  are  com- 
monly taken  as  the  standard.  There  is  considerable  justifi- 
cation for  this  from  the  fact  that  Prussia,  with  approximately 
three  fourths  of  the  area  and  the  population,  wields  a  pre- 
ponderating influence  in  imperial  affairs.  Yet  each  state 
has  its  individual  school  system  directed  and  controlled  by 
its  own  educational  authorities,  exactly  as  in  our  own  Ameri- 
can states,  and  each  state  is  entirely  independent  in  its  own 
domestic  affairs.  There  is  no  imperial  minister  of  education, 
nor  does  the  imperial  parliament  attempt  to  impose  any  edu- 
cational uniformity,  save  in  exceptional  instances,  notably 
in  the  uniform  standards  demanded  of  all  who  propose  to 
practice  medicine,  and  in  the  general  regulations  prescribed 
for  all  who  expect  to  secure  the  privilege  of  the  one-year 
volunteer  service  in  the  army.  In  the  absence  of  specific 
indications  to  the  contrary,  the  following  account  may  be 
assumed  to  describe  conditions  as  they  exist  in  Prussia. 

EDUCATIONAL  CONTROL.  —  As  in  the  case  of  France, 
education  is  a  matter  of  public  concern  that  is  looked  at  from 
a  state  point  of  view.  Educational  control  in  Prussia  is 
centered  in  a  minister  of  education,  whose  official  title  is 
Minister  of  Religious  and  Educational  Affairs  (Minister  der 
geistlichen  und  Unterrichts-Angelegenheiten}.  As  yet  no  Ger- 
man state  has  any  cabinet  officer  who  devotes  his  attention 
exclusively  to  educational  affairs.  Prussia  seems  tending 
in  that  direction,  for  in  January,  IQII,  public  health,  which 
had  formerly  been  a  department  of  the  above-named  ministry, 
was  raised  to  an  independent  position,  and  there  is  a  growing 
demand  for  the  separation  of  the  departments  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs  and  education.  There  is  one  fundamental  difference 
between  the  positions  of  the  French  and  German  educational 
heads :  in  France,  the  minister  is  responsible  to  the  parlia- 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  103 

ment,  while  in  Prussia,  the  minister  is  responsible  to  the  king 
alone.  As  a  consequence,  the  incumbency  of  the  German 
minister  is  considerably  more  stable  than  in  the  case  of  the 
corresponding  French  official.  Below  the  minister  is  an 
under-secretary  who  acts  as  his  deputy.  The  ministry  is 
furthermore  divided  into  three  departments :  one  depart- 
ment for  ecclesiastical  affairs ;  and  two  for  education,  the 
first  having  charge  of  secondary  and  higher  education,  and 
the  second  of  elementary  education.  There  is  also  a  council 
of  some  thirty  members,  mostly  jurists,  who  aid  the  minister 
with  their  advice,  and  divide  the  various  administrative 
duties  that  devolve  upon  so  important  a  department.  They 
have  little  or  no  final  power,  however,  for  the  minister  must 
assume  responsibility  for  the  entire  conduct  of  his  depart- 
ment. Whenever  fundamental  changes  of  great  moment 
seemed  desirable,  he  has  been  known  to  call  a  general  con- 
ference made  up  of  prominent  laymen  as  well  as  of  leading 
educators  of  the  country  to  aid  him  further  in  his  delibera- 
tions. This  has  happened  three  times  within  the  last  genera- 
tion:  in  1890,  in  1900,  and  again  in  1907.  The  first  two 
resulted  in  the  reforms  of  the  boys'  secondary  schools  of  1892 
and  1901,  and  the  last  preceded  the  recent  reorganization  of 
girls'  secondary  education.  It  must  be  clearly  understood, 
however,  that  no  one  of  these  conferences  had  any  real  power, 
not  even  the  right  to  make  recommendations  for  public  con- 
sideration. They  were  merely  deliberative  bodies  for  the 
convenience  of  the  minister,  nor  was  he  even  morally  bound  to 
adopt  their  conclusions. 

The  Prussian  state  is  composed  of  twelve  provinces,  each 
of  which  is  administered  by  a  president.  All  secondary  and 
elementary  educational  affairs  within  each  of  these  areas 
are  under  the  control  of  the  provincial  school  board  (Pro- 
vincial Schulkollegium) ,  at  whose  head  sits  the  above-men- 
tioned president.  The  membership  of  these  boards  ranges 
in  number  from  four  in  the  smaller  provinces  to  fourteen  in 


IO4          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Brandenburg,  the  province  in  which  Berlin  is  situated.  All 
save  the  president  are  professional  educators,  who  have  toiled 
long  and  successfully  in  the  educational  service  of  the  state, 
and  who  bring  to  their  work  the  ripeness  of  judgment  and 
sanity  of  mind  that  are  so  necessary  in  administrative  work 
of  this  nature.  While  nominally  inspection  of  schools  forms 
a  part  of  their  duties,  in  practice  they  are  chiefly  occupied 
with  the  larger  problems  of  administration  in  their  position 
as  intermediaries  between  the  ministry  at  Berlin  and  the 
schools.  They  come  into  direct  relations  with  the  secondary 
schools  of  their  province,  being  charged  with  the  "  super- 
vision, direction,  and  inspection  of  schools  which  lead  to  the 
universities ;  and  the  appointment,  promotion,  discipline, 
suspension,  and  dismissal  of  teachers  in  these  institutions  " 
(except  the  directors).  Thus  these  provincial  school  boards 
have  practically  the  entire  professional  control  of  all  second- 
ary schools  within  their  domains,  save  only  for  the  examina- 
tion of  teachers.  This  is  intrusted  to  another  set  of  boards 
known  as  examining  commissions  (Wissenschaftliche  Prufungs- 
Kommissionen) ,  eleven  in  number  for  the  whole  state.  The 
advantages  of  the  system  will  be  at  once  apparent,  for  the 
examination  commission  of  subject  matter  specialists  (uni- 
versity professors  are  frequently  members  of  these  bodies) 
passes  upon  the  candidate's  academic  qualifications,  other 
experts  judge  of  his  teaching  abilities,  while  the  provincial 
school  board  renders  the  final  decision  as  to  whether  or  not 
the  applicant  should  be  placed  upon  the  eligible  list.  In  the 
face  of  this  series  of  tests,  it  is  next  to  impossible  for  the  un- 
worthy candidate  to  secure  an  appointment. 

The  provincial  school  board  has  direct  charge  of  the  royal 
schools  (that  is,  those  supported  at  state  expense),  while  even 
in  the  case  of  similar  schools  founded  and  maintained  by  the 
municipalities  the  control  of  these  boards  is  absolute  over  the 
purely  professional  side  of  the  administration,  and  extends 
also  in  a  supervisory  capacity  over  the  accounts,  the  budget, 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  105 

and  the  general  external  administration.  Although  munici- 
palities may  establish  schools  of  their  own,  they  must  in 
all  cases  conform  to  regulations  laid  down  by  these  provincial 
school  boards.  So,  too,  with  the  selection  of  teachers.  This 
is  a  prerogative  of  the  communities,  but  inasmuch  as  their 
choice  is  limited  to  an  eligible  list  drawn  up  by  the  provincial 
school  board,  they  have  little  real  power  in  the  matter.  The 
hand  of  the  state  is  thus  everywhere  in  evidence,  but  it  is 
chiefly  felt  in  the  determination  of  standards  —  standards 
of  health  and  hygiene,  standards  of  salaries,  standards  of 
academic  and  professional  fitness  on  the  part  of  the  teachers. 
It  should  be  observed  that  these  are  all  minimum  standards 
and  never  maximum  standards.  If  the  community,  for  ex- 
ample, desires  to  pay  more  than  the  regular  salary  schedules 
(and  in  the  cities  of  importance  salaries  in  municipal  schools 
are  frequently  higher  than  in  the  corresponding  state  schools), 
every  encouragement  is  extended  to  such  ambition.  The 
municipal  board  may  determine  what  kind  of  a  school  it  shall 
have,  nay  is  even  left  perfectly  free  to  decide  whether  or  not 
it  shall  have  any  secondary  school  at  all ;  it  may  found  the 
school,  provide  the  equipment,  choose  the  teachers  under 
restrictions  previously  indicated,  and  do  everything  to  put 
the  school  in  running  order.  Once  this  is  done,  however, 
municipal  prerogative  ceases  to  be  operative.  The  only 
thing  left  for  the  local  board  is  to  pay  the  bills,  and  it  may 
not  renounce  this  privilege  at  will,  for  it  has  absolutely  no 
control  over  the  purely  professional  aspects  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  its  own  school.  This  is  all  directed  by  the  pro- 
vincial boards.  In  this  professional  control  by  educational 
experts  of  the  higher  schools  in  Germany,  one  finds  the  clue 
to  the  marvelous  efficiency  of  her  secondary  school  system. 

PRIMARY  AND  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.  —  The  dis- 
tinctions that  we  have  already  drawn  between  the  secondary 
and  elementary  schools  in  France  will,  to  a  very  large  extent, 
hold  true  for  Germany.  In  the  last  analysis,  the  fundamental 


io6  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

difference  is  a  social  difference.  The  stratification  of  the 
continental  life  has  been  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
coming  generation  is  reasonably  sure  to  follow  along  in  sub- 
stantially the  same  social  level  as  did  the  preceding  genera- 
tion. Any  such  rapid  readjustments  of  social  conditions  as  are 
constantly  recurring  here  in  the  United  States  are  relatively 
rare  in  the  continental  countries.  Not  that  such  changes 
are  impossible,  but  the  presumption  is  always  against  them. 
Furthermore,  the  conditions  of  industrial  and  commercial 
life  are  so  highly  organized  that  the  youth  is  reluctant  to  run 
the  risk  of  failure  to  "  make  good."  The  monarchical  char- 
acter of  the  German  government,  together  with  the  relative 
venerableness  of  the  German  civilization  and  its  consequent 
disinclination  to  change,  tends  to  strengthen  the  stratification 
of  the  social  conditions,  and  to  increase  the  likelihood  that 
the  youth  will  not  depart  from  the  social  groove  of  his  father. 
If  the  father  went  to  a  higher  school,  the  probability  is  good 
that  the  child  will  attend  the  same  sort  of  a  school.  While 
the  German  parent  is  undoubtedly  ambitious  for  his  offspring, 
this  ambition  is  not  so  unbridled  as  it  is  in  this  country.  The 
boldness  of  the  American  parent  in  this  respect  would  be 
characterized  as  rashness  in  Germany.  In  the  United  States, 
Huxley's  familiar  expression  with  reference  to  the  educational 
ladder  which  should  exist  in  every  democracy  with  one  end 
in  the  gutter  and  the  other  in  the  university  is  undoubtedly 
borne  out  by  the  facts  in  the  case.  It  is  possible  for  the 
humblest  American  youth  to  start  at  the  very  bottom  and 
come  out  at  the  opposite  end  with  no  other  assistance  than 
his  own  unaided  efforts.  Such  a  course  is  impossible  in  Ger- 
many. No  German  state  has  a  school  system  that  permits 
any  similar  passage.  On  the  other  hand,  as  in  France,  each 
of  the  German  states  has  two  systems  :  the  lower,  or  elemen- 
tary, which  is  practically  complete  in  itself ;  and  the  higher 
(or  secondary,  as  we  call  it),  which  leads  on  to  the  university. 
Between  these  two  there  is  only  one  regularly  recognized 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  107 

point  of  transition :  at  the  close  of  the  third  or  fourth  school 
year.  Once  beyond  here,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  transfer 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher.  Indeed  one  author  has  said 
that  not  one  boy  in  ten  thousand  who  completes  the  elemen- 
tary school  course  ever  reaches  the  Gymnasium  or  in  fact 
any  one  of  the  "  higher  "  schools. 

This  brings  up  the  question :  "  What  is  a  higher  school?  " 
A  higher  school  is  one  whose  leaving  certificate  carries  with 
it  the  right  to  the  one-year  volunteer  service  privilege  in  the 
army.  In  the  last  analysis  this  is  a  prize  reserved  for  the 
financially  fit,  for  the  tuition  fees  in  the  only  schools  that 
can  grant  this  right  effectually  exclude  the  children  of  the 
proletariat  from  its  enjoyment.  It  will  be  readily  apparent 
that  the  ten  per  cent  of  free  places  in  the  secondary  schools 
can  have  but  little  effect  in  alleviating  this  situation.  Ger- 
many is  so  dominated  by  militarism  that  every  able-bodied 
male  looks  upon  his  military  service  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  proceeds  to  make  the  best  of  it.  The  ordinary  young 
man  who  comes  up  through  the  elementary  school  is  con- 
scripted for  two  or  more  years  of  service  in  the  army.  Grad- 
uates of  higher  schools  may  offer  their  services  for  a  single 
year.  During  this  time,  in  return  for  the  honor,  social  posi- 
tion, and  opportunities  for  further  advancement,  the  volunteer 
relieves  the  government  of  all  expense  attendant  upon  his 
army  service  —  food,  lodging,  arms,  and  equipment.  To  the 
American,  this  privilege  would  certainly  seem  of  doubtful 
value,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  entails  an  expense 
of  from  three  hundred  and  fifty  to  several  thousand  dollars 
per  year,  but  to  the  German  this  sacrifice  is  \vell  worth  making. 
In  the  school  that  makes  all  this  possible,  the  instruction  goes 
beyond  the  simple  elements  given  in  the  lower  schools ;  it 
gives  a  complete  liberal  education ;  it  leads  on  to  the  univer- 
sity, and  to  other  higher  institutions.  Such  a  school  must  in- 
clude in  its  curriculum  :  geography,  history,  German  literature, 
mathematics,  natural  science,  and  at  least  two  foreign  languages. 


io8          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

BOYS'  HIGHER  SCHOOLS. —  The  category  of  boys' 
higher  schools  embraces  the  following : 

Gymnasien  and  Progymnasien; 
Realgymnasien  and  Realprogymnasien ; 
Oberrealschulen  and  Realschulen. 

The  first  of  each  of  these  pairs  of  schools  is  a  nine-year 
school,  while  the  second  is  a  six-year  school,  identical  in  all 
respects  with  the  first  two  thirds  of  the  course  of  its  corre- 
sponding relative.  On  the  completion  of  the  courses  of  the 
Progymnasien  and  the  Realprogymnasien,  which  are  found 
only  in  smaller  communities,  the  pupils  ordinarily  seek  the 
respective  full-course  schools  in  the  nearest  large  town.  Thus 
the  advantages  of  secondary  education  are  extended  to  a 
much  larger  number  of  people  without  the  expense  of  sup- 
porting so  many  nine-year  schools.  In  each  of  these  instances, 
the  short-course  school  evolved  from  the  full-course  school. 
The  contrary  is  true  in  the  case  of  the  Oberrealschule  and  the 
Realschule.  Here  the  Realschule  was  the  original  type,  which 
in  its  turn  was  expanded  into  the  Oberrealschule. 

Nine  years  is  the  minimum  age  for  entering  any  of  these 
higher  schools,  and  the  pupils  must  have  already  had  at 
least  a  three  years'  course  in  the  elementary  subjects  of  read- 
ing, writing,  arithmetic,  and  religion.  Where  the  knowledge 
shall  have  been  gained,  however,  is  quite  immaterial.  It  is 
offered  in  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  the  elementary  school 
( Volksschule) ,  as  well  as  in  the  elementary  classes  ( Vorschulc] 
frequently  found  in  connection  with  the  secondary  school. 

Gymnasium.  -  The  Gymnasium  is  a  classical  school  pure 
and  simple,  with  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  forming 
a  dominant  feature  of  the  course.  French  is  the  required 
modern  language,  although  English  appears  as  an  elective, 
as  does  also  Hebrew.  Its  specific  purpose  is  to  give  such  a 
broad  humanistic  culture  as  will  prepare  its  pupils  for  sub- 
sequent university  specialization  along  either  arts  or  science 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


109 


lines.     The  fact  that  nearly  half  of  the  304  week  hours  in  the 
whole  course  is  devoted  to  linguistic  subjects  demonstrates 
conclusively  the  ultra-humanistic  character  of  its  work. 
The  detailed  program  follows  : 

GERMAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS 
GYMNASIUM 


VI 

V 

IV 

UIII 

OIII 

UII 

on 

UI 

OI 

TOTAL 

Required  : 

Religion       .     . 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

19 

German        .     . 

4 

3 

3 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

26 

Latin       .     .     . 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

7 

7) 

7) 

7 

68 

Greek      .     .     . 

— 

— 

— 

6 

6 

6 

6J 

6} 

6 

36 

French    .     .     . 

— 

— 

4 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

20 

History        .     . 

— 

— 

2 

2 

2 

2 

3) 

3( 

3) 

i7 

Geography 

2 

2 

2 

I 

I 

I 

J 

-I 

.  | 

9 

Arithmetic  and 

mathematics 

4 

4 

4 

3 

3 

4 

4} 

4) 

4) 

34 

Natural  science 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

*) 

a) 

2  I 

18 

Writing        .     . 

2 

2 

— 

— 

— 

— 

4 

Drawing 



2 

2 

2 

2 



— 

— 

— 

8 

Gymnastics 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

27 

Singing  l      .     . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

18 

30 

3° 

34 

35 

35 

35 

35 

35 

35 

304 

Optional  : 

Drawing      .     . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Hebrew  .     .     . 

2 

2 

2 

English  .      .     . 

2 

2 

2 

1  From  IV  onward  only  for  pupils  with  vocal  ability. 

Brackets  indicate  that  the  time  for  subjects  enclosed  may  be  redistributed 
if  desired. 

Realgymnasium.  —  The  Realgymnasium  likewise  aims  to 
give  a  general  culture  in  which  the  classical  spirit  is  repre- 
sented by  Latin,  but  in  which  the  modern  languages,  mathe- 
matics, and  the  natural  sciences  figure  largely.  It  represents 
a  compromise  between  the  ideals  of  the  classicists  and  the 
ardent  realists.  This  type  of  school  was  denominated  a 


no          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


hybrid  by  the  Conference  of  1890,  and  bade  fair  to  go  out  of 
existence.  The  tide  turned  during  the  latter  part  of  the  fol- 
lowing decade,  and  after  the  Conference  of  1900  the  Real- 
gymnasium  began  to  develop  rapidly.  In  this  course,  Greek 
is  replaced  by  English,  while  French  and  the  sciences  receive 
more  attention  than  in  the  Gymnasium. 
The  detailed  program  follows : 

GERMAN   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS 
REALGYMNASIUM 


VI 

V 

IV 

UIII 

Required  : 

Religion       .     . 

3 

2 

2 

2 

German        .     . 

4 

3 

3 

3 

Latin       .     .     . 

8 

8 

7 

5 

French    .     . 

— 

— 

5 

4 

English   .     .     . 

— 

— 

— 

3 

History    .     .     . 

— 

— 

2 

2 

Geography- 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Arithmetic  and 

mathematics 

4 

4 

4 

5 

Natural  science 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Writing        .     . 

2 

2 

— 

— 

Drawing      .     . 



2 

2 

2 

Gymnastics 

3 

3 

3 

3 

Singing  l      .     . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

3° 

3° 

34 

35 

Optional  : 

Geometrical 

drawing    .     . 

35 


UII 

Oil 

UI 

OI 

TOTAL 

2 

2 

2 

2 

19 

3 

3 

3 

3 

28 

4 

4^ 

4 

4 

49 

4 

4 

4 

4 

2Q 

3 

3 

3 

3 

18 

2 

3 

3 

3 

17 

I 

— 

— 

— 

ii 

5 

5 

5 

5 

42 

4 

5 

5 

5 

29 

— 

— 

— 

— 

4 

2 

2 

2 

2 

16 

3 

3 

3 

3 

27 

2 

2 

2 

2 

18 

35 

36 

36 

36 

3°7 

2 

2 

2 

2 

1  From  IV  onward  only  for  pupils  with  vocal  ability. 

Brackets  indicate  that  the  time  for  subjects  enclosed  may  be  redistributed 
if  desired. 

Oberrealschule.  —  The  Realschule  is  a  six-year  higher 
school  which  is  outside  the  pale  of  any  direct  classical  in- 
fluence whatsoever,  for  no  ancient  language  appears  in  its 
program  of  study.  In  many  of  these  schools  the  course  has 


Secondary  Ediication  in  Europe 


1 1 1 


been  extended  for  three  years  more,  and  we  have  the  Ober- 
realschule,  a  school  worthy  to  rank  with  the  Gymnasium  and 
the  Realgymnasium.  This  is  more  particularly  a  fitting 
school  for  the  present-day  business  life,  in  so  far  as  the  chil- 
dren of  the  upper  classes  are  looking  forward  to  that  field  of 
activity.  Modern  languages  and  the  natural  sciences,  there- 
fore, are  the  dominant  elements  in  its  program  of  study. 
The  detailed  program  follows  : 

GERMAN    SECONDARY    SCHOOLS 
OBERREALSCHULE 


VI 

V 

IV 

UIII 

Required  : 

Religion       .     . 

3 

2           2 

2 

German        .     . 

5 

4        4 

3 

French    .     .     . 

6 

6        6 

6 

English   .     .     . 

— 

—  ;   — 

5 

History   .     . 

— 

3 

2 

Geography 

2 

2           2 

2 

Arithmetic  and 

mathematics 

5 

5 

6 

6 

Natural  science 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Writing  ...        2 

2 

2 

— 

Freehand 

drawing    .     .  | 

2 

2 

2 

Gymnastics      .        3 

3 

3 

3 

Singing  '       .     . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

!   30 

30 

34 

35 

Optional  : 

Geometrical 

drawing 

OIII 

UII 

on 

UI 

01 

TOTAL 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

10 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

34 

6 

5 

4 

4 

4 

47 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

2  5 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

1  8 

2 

I 

i 

i 

i 

14 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

47 

4 

6 

6 

6 

6 

36 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

1  6 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

27 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

18 

35 

35 

36 

36 

36 

307 

2 

2 

2 

2 

1  From  IV  onward  only  for  pupils  with  vocal  ability. 

Number  of  Schools.  —On  February  i,  1912,  there  were  in 
Prussia  342  Gymnasien,  168  Realgymnasien,  102  Oberreal- 
schulen,  and  251  six-year  schools,  more  than  two  thirds  of 
which  were  Rcalschulen.  Of  the  236,173  pupils  in  these 
schools,  nearly  half,  or,  to  be  more  accurate,  103,314,  were  in 


112  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  Gymnasien,  50,319  were  in  the  Realgymnasien,  41,986 
were  in  the  Oberrealschulen,  and  the  others  were  in  the  short- 
course  schools.  In  1911,  with  nearly  the  same  total  number 
of  pupils,  the  graduates  numbered  12,820,  of  whom  8692  had 
completed  the  course  at  the  nine-year  schools,  and  were  con- 
sequently elegible  to  enter  the  university. 

Fees.  —  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact  that 
there  are  no  free  secondary  schools  in  Germany,  although 
the  fees  are  not  high,  especially  considering  the  character  of 
the  instruction  received.  The  maximum  charges  in  Prussia 
are  less  than  one  half  the  corresponding  tuition  figures  in 
France,  amounting  to  150  M.  (837.50)  in  the  three  higher  classes 
of  the  nine-year  schools,  to  130  M.  ($32.50)  in  the  six  lowest 
classes,  as  well  as  in  all  the  classes  of  the  Progymnasien  and 
the  Realprogymnasien.  In  the  Realschulen,  the  charges  are  even 
lower  still,  no  M.  ($22.50),  unless  the  school  is  in  connection 
with  a  nine-year  school,  in  which  case  the  130  M.  schedule  is 
in  force. 

EARLY  SPECIALIZATION  DEFERRED.  —  Such  an  or- 
ganization of  secondary  education  as  that  in  Germany,  with 
the  added  consideration  that  passage  from  the  elementary  to 
any  one  of  the  higher  schools  was  impossible  beyond  a  certain 
point,  long  practically  forced  the  youngster  to  decide  at  nine 
years  of  age  personally  or  vicariously  what  his  life  work  was 
to  be.  As  late  as  1900,  only  Gymnasium  graduates  were 
admitted  to  the  university  to  prepare  for  law,  medicine,  or 
most  of  the  teaching  positions.  Naturally  the  Gymnasium 
pupils  on  the  whole  selected  that  course  because  no  other 
opened  the  way  to  a  professional  or  government  career. 
Finally  the  modern  spirit  that  had  been  struggling  for  recog- 
nition in  the  field  of  secondary  education  for  years  beat  down 
the  guard  of  the  conservative  classicists,  and  the  reform  of 
1901  in  Prussia  admitted  the  graduates  of  the  three  types  of 
schools,  Gymnasien,  Realgymnasien,  and  Oberrealschulen,  to 
practically  equal  privileges  as  far  as  university  opportunity 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  113 

and  civil  service  preferment  were  concerned.  Theology,  how- 
ever, still  remains  a  monopoly  of  the  purely  classical  school, 
and  the  study  of  medicine  is  reserved  for  those  who  have  had 
at  least  the  Realgymnasium  course  in  Latin. 

Reform  Plan  Schools.  —  Meanwhile  a  new  type  of  second- 
ary school  had  been  created,  known  as  the  Reform  Gymna- 
sium, or  Frankfort-plan  school.  This  was  an  attempt  to  solve 
the  premature  specialization  problem  attendant  upon  com- 
pelling the  early  choice  of  the  child's  future  career.  Under 
the  Frankfort  system  a  single  school  has  a  Gymnasium  and  a 
Realgymnasium  side.  For  three  years  there  is  no  differentia- 
tion between  them.  Then  the  course  bifurcates,  one  part 
pursuing  the  Gymnasium  studies,  and  the  other  part  the 
Realgymnasium  studies.  A  comparison  of  the  Frankfort 
program  with  that  of  the  two  pure  types  will  bring  significant 
differences  to  light.  For  example,  Latin  is  not  begun  at  all 
until  the  fourth  year  of  the  course,  foreign  language  study 
in  the  meantime  being  represented  by  French.  According 
to  a  recent  reform  of  a  few  years  ago,  the  fourth  and  fifth 
years  under  the  Frankfort  scheme  have  been  made  "  almost 
common,"  the  only  differences  in  time  allotment  being  con- 
fined to  French  and  Latin.  This  practically  makes  it  possible 
to  change  from  one  course  to  another  with  but  slight  difficulty 
as  late  as  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  year.  At  this  point  the 
Gymnasium  pupils  begin  Greek  and  the  Realgymnasium  pupils 
begin  English.  Once  beyond  here  any  further  change  is  im- 
possible. Aside  from  deferring  the  final  choice  of  course  for 
several  years,  until  the  youth  shall  have  gone  far  enough  to 
make  a  correct  decision  more  reasonably  probable,  this  Frank- 
fort scheme  brings  up  an  important  pedagogical  question  as 
to  the  relative  value  of  beginning  the  study  of  the  classics 
comparatively  late  (at  twelve  instead  of  at  nine)  and  pur- 
suing them  intensively,  or  beginning  earlier  and  carrying 
them  on  more  discursively.  So  far  as  information  is  available, 
the  pupils  at  the  reform  Gymnasium  do  not  seem  to  have 


1 1 4  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

suffered  any  handicap  even  when  they  have  later  pursued 
their  classical  studies  in  the  university. 

In  any  event,  the  number  of  these  schools  is  increasing 
rapidly,  having  grown  in  Prussia  from  fifty-seven  in  1904  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  in  1912.  If  increase  in  num- 
bers is  any  criterion,  the  Frankfort  system  has  come  to  stay. 
Another  type  of  reform  institution  which  takes  its  name 
from  Altona,  the  city  of  its  birth,  has  attempted  to  do  for 
the  Realgymnasium  and  the  Realschule  what  the  Frankfort 
plan  has  for  the  other  two  types  of  higher  schools.  The 
Altona  plan  has  been  but  moderately  successful,  for  only  six 
schools  in  Prussia  followed  it  in  1912,  and  two  of  these  had 
already  decided  to  go  over  to  the  Frankfort  scheme.  These 
types  of  reform  institution  indicate  in  the  first  place  that 
centralization  of  educational  control  does  not  necessarily 
mean  permanency  of  form  and  structure,  and  in  the  second 
place  that  Germany  is  beginning  to  repudiate  a  narrow,  fixed 
program  of  studies,  and  is  turning  toward  the  principle  of 
election  —  not  a  hasty  and  more  or  less  random  choice  of 
subjects  of  study,  but  a  deliberate,  intelligent  selection  of 
courses.  Within  a  given  course,  however,  there  is  substan- 
tially no  election  of  subjects. 

Although  this  reform  plan  has  made  marvelous  progress 
during  the  past  twenty  years,  the  great  majority  of  the  schools 
still  cling  to  the  traditional  forms.  Germany,  France,  and 
the  United  States  thus  present  three  different  types  of  solu- 
tion for  the  dissatisfaction  with  secondary  programs  of  stud}-. 
In  Germany,  the  pupil  selects  his  school,  Gymnasium,  Real- 
gymnasium,  or  Oberrcalschule  type.  In  France,  he  finds  four 
courses  in  the  same  school  —  Latin-Greek,  Latin-modern 
language,  Latin-science,  and  science-modern  language  —  from 
which  to  choose.  In  all  of  these  instances,  once  the  course 
is  selected,  the  subjects  of  study  are  rather  rigidly  prescribed. 
In  the  United  States,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  difficult 
to  suggest  any  general  line  of  procedure,  for  the  absence  of 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  115 

any  accepted  philosophical  background  for  the  organization 
of  secondary  education  is  all  too  painfully  apparent.  We 
certainly  have  carried  the  unlimited  and  more  or  less  irrational 
election  of  subjects  of  study  in  our  high  schools  to  an  extreme 
not  paralleled  in  any  of  the  other  great  nations.  We  may 
not  agree  with  the  principles  controlling  the  organization  of 
secondary  education  in  Germany  and  France,  but  at  least  we 
must  recognize  the  fact  that  there  is  some  accepted  educa- 
tional philosophy  back  of  it  all,  which  is  more  than  can  be 
said  in  general  for  the  conditions  to  be  found  in  our  own 
country. 

EDUCATION  OF  GIRLS.  TYPES  OF  SCHOOLS. - 
Secondary  education  for  girls  in  Germany  suffers  materially 
in  comparison  with  that  of  boys.  In  fact,  it  has  never  been 
taken  seriously  until  within  the  last  few  years.  Much  of 
the  recognition  accorded  it  to-day  is  due  to  the  effective 
propaganda  carried  on  by  the  "  German  Association  for  the 
Secondary  Education  of  Girls  "  and  other  similar  organiza- 
tions which  have  been  struggling  so  valiantly  for  the  past 
thirty  years.  It  may  be  unnecessary  to  observe  in  this  con- 
nection that  coeducation  in  secondary  schools  is  practically 
unknown  in  Germany,  although  on  rare  occasions  one 
finds  girls  attending  boys'  higher  schools.  Woman  is  not 
looked  upon  as  an  economic  competitor  of  man  in  the  work 
of  the  world,  nor  is  she  ever  considered  as  belonging  to  the 
directing  class.  Since  the  program  of  studies  in  boys'  schools 
is  definitely  planned  for  the  preliminary  training  of  the  country's 
leaders,  it  will  be  readily  patent  that  where  opportunities  for 
education  of  a  more  advanced  type  than  that  found  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  is  offered  to  girls,  it  must  necessarily  differ 
widely  from  that  provided  for  boys.  Its  aim  is  quite  differ- 
ent ;  its  organization  is  likewise  quite  different.  In  the  main, 
it  is  based  upon  the  course  in  the  Lyzeum,  ten  years  in 
length  and  extending  from  six  to  sixteen.  The  elementary 
work  is  an  integral  part  of  the  whole  school,  thus  resembling 


n6  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  organization  of  the  French  secondary  schools  for  boys, 
rather  than  the  German.  Superimposed  upon  the  Lyzeum 
is  the  Oberlyzeum,  with  a  bifurcated  course,  one  branch,  the 
Women's  School  (Die  Frauenschule) ,  with  its  combination 
housewifery  and  kindergarten  training  for  two  years,  and 
the  other,  the  Higher  Training  School,  with  a  four-year  course 
that  prepares  for  teaching  in  a  Lyzeum. 

For  those  who  look  forward  to  university  study  (a  privilege 
but  recently  extended  to  women  in  Germany)  there  is  another 
type  of  school,  Studienanstalt,  entered  from  the  Lyzeum  at 
the  end  of  the  seventh  or  the  eighth  year  of  the  course,  the 
former  if  the  pupil  is  to  study  classics,  the  latter  if  she  wishes 
to  go  in  for  a  purely  modern  grouping  of  subjects.  These 
courses,  six  and  five  years  respectively,  correspond  very 
closely  to  the  Gymnasium,  Realgymnasium,  and  Oberreal- 
schule  courses  of  the  boys'  schools.  Completion  of  the  as- 
signed work  in  any  of  these  three  lines  and  passage  of  the 
leaving  examination  qualify  for  university  entrance.  Inas- 
much as  there  are  under  three  hundred  (1911)  public  girls' 
higher  schools,  as  the  term  has  been  used  heretofore,  in  Prussia, 
and  only  about  one  tenth  of  them  fit  for  the  university  (thirty 
in  1911),  many  girls  who  might  desire  a  higher  education  are 
excluded  from  lack  of  preliminary  training  opportunity.  One 
is  moved  to  observe  that  nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  the 
young  woman  granted  the  facilities  for  secondary  and  higher 
learning  that  are  to  be  found  in  America. 

Reorganization  of  Girls'  Schools.  —  The  following  diagram, 
including  the  minor  changes  in  nomenclature  to  conform  with 
the  ministerial  order  of  February  i,  1912,  will  throw  consider- 
able light  on  the  organization  of  girls'  schools.  Lyzeum  here 
replaces  the  late  Higher  Girls'  School,  while  the  former  Lyzeum 
gives  way  to  the  name  Oberlyzeum.  A  leaving  examination 
(Reiseprufung)  has  been  introduced  after  the  third  year  of 
the  training  school  course,  and  the  fourth  or  Practical  Year 
of  this  course  is  henceforth  to  be  known  as  the  Seminar  Class. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


117 


ORGANIZATION  OF  HIGHER  GIRLS'  SCHOOLS-1912. 


Oberlyzeum                                                Studienanstalt 

.Women's  School  and  Teachers'  Training  School)                               (Unversity  Preparation) 

(a)  Women's  (b)Academ  c  and  Training  Classes'                        (a)                    (b)                  (c) 
School                    Mn  mum  age                                    Oberreal-            Realgym-            Gymna- 
Teacher  s  examination,  20  years                     ^^                nM,iim                s,,m 

Seminar 
SKL       pi 

OLI                           I        .      v,   ..        I       .^s—,        I 

1                                                              1 

FSI          ,__ 

,  j        01  TT                           II       .  „  II       •  •        II 

inimum  a 
16  years 

FSII              j 

ge             OLIII                       HI      v  HI      .  III 

Jpper  Grades 
[two  foreign     < 
languages) 

Middle  Grades 
one  fore  gn     < 
language) 

.ower  Grades 
preparatory      < 
classes) 

Lyz 

eum 

I 

r^r                          TV                            IV       Greek 

IV      begun 

1 

II 

y      ,  v    ...  ..  .,.       y 

1 

III 

VI     f;atin 
begun 

u<-i        J  yujij 

English  begun 

IV 

Horizonta   brackets  (*~*~>) 
Indicate  common  instruction 
in  certain  subjects 

French  begun 

V 

VI 

VII 

Entrance  age,  6  years 

VIII 

IX 

X 

n8  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Program  of  Studies.  —  Appended  will  be  found  the  de- 
tailed programs  of  the  Lyzeum  and  both  divisions  of  the 
Oberlyzeum.  Those  of  the  Studienanstalt  resemble  closely  in 
general  outline  the  programs  of  the  corresponding  boys' 
schools,  save  that  the  influence  of  the  Frankfort  reform  plan 
is  strongly  in  evidence.  Latin  on  the  Gymnasium  side  suffers 
most,  but  the  loss  in  time  here  is  compensated  for  by  two 
years  of  compulsory  English,  and  other  hours  distributed 
among  French,  geography,  natural  science,  and  drawing. 
The  girls'  complete  course  extends  over  thirteen  years  in- 
stead of  twelve  as  in  the  case  of  the  boys.  This  reduces 
the  number  of  week  hours  slightly,  the  possible  saving  on 
account  of  optional  work  in  singing  and  drawing  making  the 
difference  even  more  noticeable  in  individual  instances.  As 
yet  academic  standards  here  are  scarcely  as  high  as  in  the 
corresponding  boys'  schools,  but  one  could  hardly  expect  it 
to  be  otherwise  in  view  of  the  relatively  recent  admission  of 
girls  to  university  privileges. 


PROGRAM   OF   STUDIES   IN   THE   LYZEUM    (GIRLS') 
LITERARY  AND   SCIENTIFIC   SUBJECTS 


LOWER  GRADES 

MIDDLE 
GRADES 

UPPER 

GRADES 

TOTAL 

X 

IX 

VIII 

VII    VI 

V 

IV 

III 

11 

I 

VIM 

i  Religion   

3 

3 

3 

3      3 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

17 

2  German    .... 

10 

o 

8 

6      s 

;             4 

4 

4 

4 

32 

3  French      

6      5 

;            4 

4 

4 

4 

4  English     .... 

4 

4 

4 

4 

[6 

5  History  and  art  history 

— 

— 

— 

2 

2 

3 

13 

6  Geography     .... 

— 

— 

2 

2        2 

2               2 

2 

2 

2 

14 

7  Arithmetic  and  mathe- 

matics  .... 

2. 

2. 

2. 

\          2, 

2, 

2 

2, 

2 

2, 

21 

8  Natural  science 

2        2 

2      !       3 

3 

3 

2 

17 

1  6 

IS 

If)           22     22 

22            24 

24 

-'4 

24 

162 

Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


119 


TECHNICAL  SUBJECTS 


9  Writing        .... 

_ 

3 

2 

i 

i 

I 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

3 

10  Drawing      .... 

* 

* 

* 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

H 

ii  Needlework      .     .     . 

- 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

t 

t 

t 

t 

6(14) 

12  Singing        .... 

2/2 

2/2 

2/2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

H 

13  Gymnastics      .     .     . 

2/2 

2/2 

2 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

18 

2 

7 

6 

9 

9 

9 

7  (9)  7  (9)  7  (9)  7(9) 

55  (63) 

*  In  classes  X-VIII  occasional  drawing  and  clay  modeling  during  the  object 
lessons  in  German. 

t  Needlework  is  optional  in  the  upper  classes. 


PROGRAM   OF   STUDIES  OF  THE  OBERLYZEUM    (GIRLS') 
A.  WOMEN'S  SCHOOL    (Frauenschule) 


n 


TOTAL 


1  Pedagogy     

2  Household  arts  '        ... 

3  Kindergarten  teaching  ' 

4  Hygiene  and  care  of  chil-       4 

dren 

5  Civics  and  economics    .     . 


6  Household  arithmetic 

(bookkeeping) 

7  Needlework 

8  Religion 
Q  German 

10  French,     English,     Latin, 

or  Italian 

11  History,  geography,  natural 

science 

1 2  History  of  art 

13  Gymnastics 

14  Drawing  and  painting 

15  Music 


10  Including  practice  in  cooking 
and  household  management. 

8  Including  practice  work. 

8  Including  practical  work  in 
creches,  day  nurseries,  and 
nursing. 

4  Including  visits  to  philan- 
thropic institutions  and 
missions. 


Each  subject  according  to  cir- 
cumstances and  needs ;  two 
hours  each  per  week. 


1  Household  arts  and  kindergarten  teaching  may  be  so  arranged  that  in  the 
first  year  only  the  former,  and  in  the  second  only  the  latter,  may  be  taken  with 
9  hours  per  week. 


I2O          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


PROGRAM  OF   STUDIES  OF  THE   OBERLYZEUM    (GIRLS') 
B.  TEACHERS'  TRAINING  SCHOOL    (Hoheres  Lehrerinnenseminar) 


ACADEMI 

c  CLASSE 

s 

SEMINAR 

in 

II 

I 

Total 

CLASS 

i  Religion     

•2 

-2. 

•i 

Q 

I2 

2  German     

? 

•2 

-i 

Q 

I2 

3  French       

A 

A 

A 

12  I 

4  English      

A 

A 

A 

12 

I2 

5  History      
6  Geography     

2 

2 

2 
I 

2 
I 

61 

4 

I2 

7  Mathematics       
8  Natural  science  
Q  Pedagogy  . 

4 

2 
2 

4 
3 

2 

4 
3 

2 

12 

8 
6 

I2 

!3 

-2 

10  Method  and  model  lessons 
ii  Practice  teaching    .... 
12  Reports  and  discussions  .     . 

(4)1 

4 
4-6 

8 

Totals     

26 

26 

26 

78 

26 

(25-27) 

TECHNICAL  SUBJECTS 


13  Drawing    .     .     . 

14  Singing      .     .     . 

15  Gymnastics    .     . 

Totals     .     . 
Grand  totals 


2 

2 

i 

5 

— 

I 

I 

i 

3 

— 

3 

3 

3 

9 

3 

6 

6 

- 

17 

3 

32 

32 

3i 

95 

29 

1  Method  and  model  lessons  in  Class  I  are  included  in  the  periods  given  to 
each  subject  and  are  given  in  place  of  the  respective  subjects  rather  than  as 
separate  courses. 

2  Method  and  introduction  to  professional  literature. 

3  Method  and  introduction  to  experimentation. 

TRAINING  OF  TEACHERS.  —  The  training  of  teachers 
for  the  German  secondary  schools,  together  with  the  fact 
that  only  adequately  prepared  persons  can  secure  appoint- 
ment therein,  constitutes  one  of  the  strong  points  of  the 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  121 

system.  From  principle,  boys  are  taught  exclusively  by  men, 
while  girls  are  taught  partly  by  men  and  partly  by  women. 
The  former  have  almost  invariably  been  trained  at  the  uni- 
versity, while  an  ever  increasing  number  of  the  women  teachers 
are  receiving  the  same  university  experience  as  the  men,  and 
the  others  are  prepared  in  the  training  classes  of  the  girls' 
schools  mentioned  before.  Regular  teachers  (Oberlehrer)  in 
boys'  schools  must  have  completed  the  course  at  a  higher 
school,  must  have  spent  at  least  six  semesters  at  a  German 
university,  and  must  have  passed  the  state  examination, 
which  in  itself  occupies  a  full  year  of  their  time.  Possession 
of  the  university  degree  is  not  required,  nor  in  fact  is  it  of 
any  particular  advantage  to  the  man  who  intends  to  work 
in  secondary  schools.  Once  safely  by  the  state  examination, 
the  candidate  is  assigned  to  a  selected  higher  school  for  further 
professional  work  and  some  practice  teaching  during  his 
seminar  year.  If  successful  here,  he  is  advanced  to  his  Probe- 
jahr,  or  year  of  trial  teaching.  Throughout  these  two  years, 
the  candidate  is  under  constant  strain,  for  in  addition  to  an 
ever  increasing  amount  of  teaching,  sporadic  in  the  first 
year,  but  regular  in  the  second  year,  he  has  his  professional 
study  to  pursue,  the  teachers'  meetings  of  his  school  to  at- 
tend, papers  and  reports  to  prepare,  as  well  as  a  more  important 
dissertation  to  write  toward  the  end  of  each  year,  embodying 
the  results  of  his  practical  experience.  Then  only  is  he  eligible 
for  his  teaching  certificate.  Even  after  that  he  has  to  await 
his  turn  for  a  specific  appointment.  The  training  of  women 
teachers  is  not  quite  so  strenuous,  and  the  rapidly  expanding 
opportunities  for  girls'  education  considerably  increases  the 
woman's  chances  of  an  early  appointment.  In  any  case 
the  German  teacher  is  prepared  for  his  work  through  long 
years  of  training,  and  he  receives  his  appointment  only  after 
he  has  proved  his  fitness  for  the  position. 

Salaries.  —  Salaries  run  about  the  same  as  those  in  France, 
and  consequently  seem  remarkably  low  by  comparison  with 


122  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

those  paid  in  America,  especially  in  view  of  the  qualities  de- 
manded, the  preparation  required,  and  the  responsibilities 
to  be  discharged.  Headmasters  of  nine-year  schools  receive 
at  the  outset  5400  M.  (6000  M.  in  Berlin),  rising  by  regular 
stages  to  7200  M.  ($1800)  per  year,  together  with  lodging 
or  a  compensating  allowance  ranging  from  900  M.  to  1800  M. 
Headmasters  of  six-year  schools  start  at  4800  M.  and  reach 
the  same  maximum,  but  only  after  twelve  years  of  service 
as  against  nine  and  six  respectively,  in  the  two  earlier  cases. 
Regular  teachers  who  have  gone  through  the  preparation 
previously  described  begin  at  2700  M.  ($675)  and  reach  the 
same  maximum,  but  only  after  twenty-one  years  of  service, 
profiting  in  the  meantime  by  residence  allowances  varying 
from  560  M.  to  1200  M.  Special  and  other  teachers,  includ- 
ing those  in  the  elementary  classes,  receive  from  1800  M.  to 
4500  M.,  depending  upon  grade  and  length  of  service,  to- 
gether with  similar  residence  allowances  of  from  290  M.  to 
720  M.,  according  to  the  size  of  the  community  in  which  they 
live.  Teachers  in  the  girls'  schools  enjoy  substantially  the 
same  salary  schedules.  Security  of  tenure,  professional  and 
social  standing,  and  assurance  of  a  retiring  pension  are  factors 
which  must  be  reckoned  with  in  attempting  to  evaluate  the 
income  of  the  German  secondary  teacher. 

ENGLAND 

ENGLISH  AND  CONTINENTAL  CONDITIONS  CON- 
TRASTED. --  The  problem  of  presenting  a  clear  and  ac- 
curate picture  of  secondary  education  conditions  in  England 
is  immeasurably  more  difficult  than  in  the  case  of  either 
France  or  Germany.  In  the  two  latter  countries,  the  whole 
scheme  is  logically  organized,  and  responsibility  can  readily 
be  determined.  In  England,  on  the  contrary,  the  state  has 
consistently  refrained  from  taking  any  dominant  part  in 
educational  organization  or  control  until  relatively  recently. 


Secondary  Ed^icat^on  in  Europe  123 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  has  really  been  a  state  elementary 
school  system  only  since  1870,  while  the  corresponding  second- 
ary system  is  practically  the  creation  of  the  last  dozen  years. 
Before  the  assumption  of  state  control,  the  forces  of  instruc- 
tion were  organized  and  administered  by  church,  corporate, 
individual,  or  municipal  authority.  One  writer  offers  a 
plausible  explanation  of  the  apparently  confused  state  of 
this  situation  on  the  ground  that :  "  The  secondary  school 
system  of  England  is  the  expression  of  Saxon  individuality 
and  self-help."  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  carried  his  inherent 
love  of  freedom  from  control  over  into  the  educational  world, 
and  he  has  resented  any  and  all  government  interference 
with  his  "  vested  "  rights.  Until  relatively  recently  the 
Englishman  has  looked  upon  state  attempts  to  control  or 
to  direct  education  as  unwarranted  usurpation  of  personal 
privileges.  Fundamental  conceptions  of  the  right  of  the 
social  whole  to  determine  the  character  of  the  education  of 
the  individual  with  the  attendant  power  of  control,  which 
have  been  in  force  in  Germany  since  the  Allgemeine  Landrecht 
of  1794,  and  in  France  since  the  time  of  Napoleon,  are  not 
universally  accepted  principles  in  England.  In  view  of 
these  facts,  one  should  not  be  surprised  that  the  facilities 
("  system  "  is  almost  a  misnomer)  for  secondary  education 
in  England  in  the  past  render  extremely  difficult  all  attempts 
at  generalization.  Even  now  there  is  no  "  system  "  of  sec- 
ondary education  in  England ;  there  are  various  systems. 

"PUBLIC"  SCHOOLS  AND  PUBLIC  LIFE.  — For  more 
than  five  hundred  years,  secondary  education,  at  least  that 
most  worthy  the  name,  was  carried  on  in  what  are  commonly 
known  as  the  great  public  schools  —  schools  which  have  done 
a  work  of  incalculable  importance  in  the  development  of  the 
leaders  of  English  thought  and  action  —  but  schools  which  are 
far.  from  being  "  public  "  in  the  ordinary  acceptance  of  the 
word.  Except  for  some  of  the  earlier  foundations  in  France 
and  Germany,  these  are  the  oldest  existing  secondary  schools 


124  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  the  world,  Winchester  dating  from  1382,  Eton  from  1440, 
St.  Paul's  from  1509,  Westminster  from  1560,  Rugby  from 
1567,  and  Harrow  from  1571,  names  which  are  to-day  almost 
bywords  throughout  the  Anglo-Saxon  world.  By  1660,  this 
institution  of  great  public  schools  may  be  said  to  have  be- 
come established.  All  those  mentioned  above,  as  well  as 
others  of  the  more  famous  schools  existing  to-day,  were  all 
antecedent  to  that  date,  and  they  have  been  of  immense  in- 
fluence in  molding  the  traditions  of  English  public  life  ever 
since.  The  oft-quoted  remark,  attributed  to  Wellington,  that 
Waterloo  was  won  on  the  playing  fields  of  Eton,  and  Sir  Max- 
well Lyte's  expression,  "It  is  in  her  public  schools  and  uni- 
versities that  the  youth  of  England  are,  by  a  discipline  which 
shallow  judgments  have  sometimes  attempted  to  undervalue, 
prepared  for  the  duties  of  public  life,"  represent  something 
of  the  place  these  venerable  institutions  occupy  in  English 
public  opinion.  If  one  were  to  run  over  the  long  list  of  Eng- 
lish public  men  for  the  past  two  centuries,  there  would  be 
few  whose  names  are  not  to  be  found  on  the  rolls,  and  in 
many  cases  on  the  walls  themselves,  of  the  great  public  schools. 
All  told  there  are  probably  forty  or  more  of  these  public 
schools,  but  in  practice  this  term  is  reserved  for  the  nine 
great  public  schools,  Winchester,  Eton,  Westminster,  Charter- 
house, Rugby,  Harrow,  Shrewsbury,  St.  Paul's,  and  Merchant 
Taylors'.  These  latter  range  in  size  from  a  few  hundred  up 
to  the  rather  more  than  a  thousand  pupils  that  one  finds  at 
Eton,  and  account  in  all  for  upwards  of  five  thousand  boys. 
At  most,  then,  this  type  of  education  is  restricted  to  a  very 
small  portion  of  the  total  population,  but  these  old  schools 
have  long  served  as  a  standard  to  which  most  of  the  other 
secondary  schools  strive  to  conform. 

Nearly  all  these  old  schools  owe  their  beginnings  to  the 
generosity  of  some  individual  founder,  whose  original  modest 
endowment  has  in  many  cases  grown  to  munificent  propor- 
tions. Their  management  is  intrusted  to  a  self-perpetuating 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  125 

board  of  governors,  who  appoint  the  headmaster  and  direct 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  foundation.  In  other  respects, 
the  headmaster  is  entirely  responsible  for  the  conduct  of 
the  school,  choosing  (and  until  the  passage  of  the  Endowed 
Schools  Act,  dated  August  i,  1908,  dismissing)  his  assistant 
masters  and  other  subordinates  at  will,  determining  the  pro- 
grams of  study,  and  in  general  having  free  rein  to  develop  the 
institution  in  accordance  with  his  own  standards.  Such  free- 
dom offers  immense  opportunities  for  the  really  great  man, 
especially  when  backed  by  the  powerful  inertia  of  centuries  of 
tradition,  and  some  of  the  headmasters  have  risen  nobly  to  the 
occasion,  as  for  instance  in  the  striking  cases  of  Arnold  of  Rugby 
and  Thring  of  Uppingham. 

In  outward  characteristics  these  schools  are  all  very  much 
alike,  but  when  observed  from  within,  each  school  has  its 
own  individual  peculiarities,  and  each  succeeds  in  stamping 
its  influence  on  its  boys  to  such  a  remarkable  degree  that 
when  they  come  up  to  the  university,  the  "  initiated  "  can 
differentiate  among  Wykamists,  Etonians,  Rugbeians,  Har- 
rovians, and  the  like,  as  unerringly  as  the  traveled  American 
can  distinguish  among  Yankees,  Southrons,  and  middle 
westerners.  Almost  invariably  these  schools  are  boarding 
schools,  with  the  boys  scattered  in  groups  of  not  more  than 
forty  among  the  houses  of  the  assistant  masters.  Each 
house  master  is  directly  responsible  for  the  boys  living  with 
him,  physically,  intellectually,  and  morally,  so  that  the  choice 
of  a  house  is  only  little  less  important  than  the  choice  of  a 
school. 

Classical  Influence.  —  With  remarkable  fidelity  to  tradi- 
tion, these  old  public  schools  still  conserve  their  classical 
courses,  although  one  usually  finds  "  modern,  science,  and 
engineering  sides  "  listed  in  the  school  announcements.  The 
classical  course  emphasizes  Latin  and  Greek,  with  mathe- 
matics and  French  trailing  along  behind,  while  geography 
and  modern  history  bring  up  a  poor  third.  On  the  modern 


1 26  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

side  there  is  still  a  considerable  amount  of  Latin,  especially 
in  the  lower  classes,  but  French  and  German  occupy  a  large 
place,  while  the  amount  of  mathematics,  geography,  and 
history  is  considerably  greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  classi- 
cal course.  Some  schools  maintain  special  Army  Classes  for 
prospective  officers,  but  inasmuch  as  the  differentiation  of 
"  sides  "  is  found  only  in  the  upper  forms,  one  cannot  get 
away  from  the  fact  that  the  English  public  school  boy  is  still 
brought  up  in  a  decidedly  classical  atmosphere.  On  what- 
ever "  side  "  he  may  be  enrolled,  he  is  sure  to  have  his  daily 
pabulum  of  Latin  throughout  the  major  part  of  his  course, 
for  with  the  public  school  headmasters  Latin  still  forms  the 
absolutely  necessary  foundation  for  all  intellectual  training, 
aside  entirely  from  the  fact  that  it  is  a  required  subject  for 
university  entrance  and  for  most  of  the  government  examina- 
tions for  which  the  boys  are  likely  to  be  preparing. 

Organization.  —  Theoretically  there  are  six  forms  (as  the 
classes  are  called),  but  the  first  is  usually  conspicuous  by  its 
absence,  and  one  or  two  of  the  others  are  frequently  missing, 
so  that  one  runs  across  curious  names  for  divisions  and  sub- 
divisions of  the  forms  in  addition  to  the  commonly  found 
"upper"  and  "lower,"  such  as:  "remove,"  "remove  and 
shell,"  "  shell,"  and  the  "  twenty."  Boys  enter  at  thirteen 
or  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  must  leave  at  the  latest  by  the 
time  they  are  nineteen.  On  account  of  the  desire  to  fix  the 
impress  of  the  school  on  the  boy,  most  headmasters  refuse 
to  admit  a  boy  after  he  is  fifteen.  Once  in  the  school  he  is 
allowed  to  go  through  as  quickly  as  his  abilities  will  permit. 
There  are  three  terms  per  year  with  examinations  at  the  end 
of  each,  so  that  it  is  theoretically  possible  for  the  boy  to  pass 
through  three  classes  per  year,  even  without  the  double  pro- 
motion that  he  sometimes  receives.  Thus  the  fellow  who 
rushes  along  at  top  speed  covering  a  couple  of  classes  per  year 
finds  himself  in  the  sixth  form  relatively  young,  and  then  he 
remains  attached  to  this  form  until  he  is  eighteen  or  nineteen. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


127 


since  it  is  hardly  advisable  for  him  to  enter  the  university  before 
that  time,  even  where  university  regulations  permit.  Mean- 
while he  is  ripening  and  developing  intellectually,  for  the 
masters  see  to  it  that  he  has  plenty  to  do,  and  he  has  addi- 
tional opportunity  to  prepare  for  scholarship  competitions. 
From  the  foregoing,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  grading  and 
promotion  are  much  less  rigid  than  one  finds  in  America. 
The  amount  of  work  expected  of  each  class  is  not  excessive, 
for  the  English  public  school  master  takes  up  his  teaching  as 
deliberately  as  he  takes  up  his  cricket  or  his  billiards.  Little 
is  done  under  high  pressure,  but  he  aims  to  teach  his  boys  the 
subject  in  question,  as  well  as  to  develop  them  physically 
and  morally. 

Programs  of  Studies.  —  The  following  programs  may  give 
a  little  clearer  notion  of  the  nature  of  the  work  at  two  schools, 
Eton,  and  the  Perse  School,  Cambridge.  Neither  one  is 
typical  of  the  public  school  programs  as  a  whole,  each  merely 
indicating  the  work  at  its  own  particular  school.  In  fact 
the  "  typical  "  public  school  program  does  not  exist.  Eton 
is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  famous  of  the  public  schools. 
The  Perse  School,  although  a  very  old  foundation,  may  be 
called  a  present-day  school  dominated  by  a  modern  program 
with  an  extremely  classical  basis. 

ETON 


BLOCK 

HOURS  IN 
SCHOOL 
PER  WEEK 

DI- 
VIN- 
ITY 

LATIN 

GREEK 

FRENCH 

ENGLISH 

MATHE- 
MATICS 

SCI- 
ENCE 

EX- 
TRA 

DRAW- 
ING 

A 

22 

I 

I 

s1 

_ 

2 

_ 

_ 

4 

_ 

B 

24 

I 

6 

5 

4 

4 

4 

- 

- 

- 

C 

25 

I 

7 

5 

4 

4 

4 

- 

- 

- 

D 

25 

I 

7 

6 

3 

2 

3 

3 

- 

- 

E 

25 

I 

II  C 

>r  12 

4 

3  or  2 

4 

2 

- 

- 

F 

25 

I 

7 

4 

3 

A 

5 

- 

— 

I 

1  German  m;iy  be  substituted  here  for  Greek. 


128          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

At  Eton  there  is  a  peculiar  arrangement  of  classes  whereby 
the  school  is  divided  into  "  blocks."  Block  A  includes  the 
sixth  and  part  of  the  fifth  form;  block  B,  fifth  form,  upper 
division ;  block  C,  fifth  form,  middle  division ;  block  D,  fifth 
form,  lower  division ;  block  E,  "  remove  " ;  block  F,  fourth 
and  third  forms.  There  is  a  special  Army  Class  composed 
of  boys  looking  forward  to  a  military  career,  but  there  is  no 
regular  modern  "  side."  Although  geography  and  history 
do  not  figure  in  this  schedule  at  all,  the  classical  master  con- 
trives to  find  some  time  for  them. 


PERSE   SCHOOL  —  CAMBRIDGE 


ENGLISH  COMPOSI- 

GER- 

FORM 

TION  AND  LITERATURE 
HISTORY  AND  GEOG- 

FRENCH 

LATIN 

MAN' 

AND 

MATHE- 
MATICS 

SCI- 
ENCE 

DRAW- 
ING 

SING- 
ING 

DRILL 

RAPHY 

GREEK 

V 

6 

6 

8 

6 

6 

4 

_ 

- 

3 

IV 

6 

6 

8 

6 

6 

4 

- 

- 

3 

III 

ii 

6 

6 

- 

6 

6 

I 

- 

3 

II 

13 

6 

6 

- 

6 

3 

I 

I 

3 

I 

IS 

9 

~~ 

— 

6 

4 

I 

I 

3 

1  Boys  from  the  IV  form  upwards  may  take  German  or  Greek  or  both  as 
their  parents  may  deem  most  desirable. 

Boys  in  the  VI  form  specialize  in  classics,  mathematics,  history,  modern 
languages,  or  science,  and  then  time-tables  are  varied  accordingly. 

Sports  are  compulsory  two  afternoons  per  week. 

Training  for  Leadership.  —  Athletic  sports  still  occupy  a 
very  large  place  in  the  mind  of  the  public  school  master  as 
well  as  of  the  boy.  Few  printed  programs  contain  any 
schedule  for  this  time,  but  one  can  always  count  upon  finding 
two  or  three  afternoons  per  week  occupied  in  this  manner, 
and  the  exercise  is  as  rigorously  demanded  of  every  boy  in 
the  school  as  any  of  his  studies.  At  an  English  public  school, 
every  boy  is  an  active  and  participating  member  of  some 
cricket  or  football  team,  of  some  tennis  or  rowing  club.  He 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  129 

is  never  allowed  to  take  his  athletics  vicariously  from  the 
spectators'  benches,  or  even  in  homoeopathic  doses.  Such 
large  emphasis  upon  sport  has  of  late  given  rise  to  no  little  un- 
favorable criticism  of  the  public  schools,  but  it  does  develop 
bodily  vigor,  good  temper,  self-control,  the  ability  to  obey 
intelligently  and  to  command.  The  average  English  public 
school  boy  will  undoubtedly  suffer  considerably  when  com- 
pared intellectually  with  the  graduate  of  the  Gymnasium  or 
the  lycee,  but  neither  one  of  these  continental  schools  is  mak- 
ing a  deliberate  effort  to  engender  and  develop  any  directive 
ability  among  its  boys.  Intellectual  attainment  is  the  large 
standard  to  which  they  strive  to  attain.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, furthermore,  that  the  Gymnasium  and  the  lycee  are 
both  finishing  schools,  as  far  as  a  liberal  education  is  con- 
cerned. Their  graduates  are  at  the  threshold  of  their  pro- 
fessional training.  The  English  boy,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
still  at  least  a  part  of  his  university  course  to  complete  before 
his  liberal  education  may  be  said  to  be  ended.  The  American 
high-school  boy  develops  a  considerable  degree  of  independence 
and  initiative,  but  it  is  due  to  a  certain  laissez-faire  system 
that  seems  to  pervade  a  large  part  of  the  American  life,  private 
as  well  as  institutional.  There  is  no  school  system  or  school 
type  in  the  world  to-day  that  is  offering  the  opportunity  for 
discovering,  and  that  is  making  the  deliberate,  organized 
effort  to  develop  the  capacity  for  leadership  among  all  its 
membership  that  one  finds  in  the  English  public  school. 

School  Life.  —  Life  at  a  public  school  is  a  rather  expensive 
luxury.  Tuition  alone  at  one  of  the  less  famous  schools  must 
be  reckoned  at  about  £20  ($100)  per  year,  while  at  Eton  the 
fees  run  up  to  £150  or  £i  60  ($750  or  $800).  At  a  reasonable 
estimate  one  must  count  on  spending  about  £300  ($1500) 
per  year  for  the  privilege  of  keeping  a  boy  at  Eton.  The 
fact  that  there  are  scholarships  at  all  the  schools  does  not  by 
any  means  open  these  schools  to  the  boys  of  really  humble 
parents.  The  additional  expenses  that  must  be  met  in  order 


130  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

to  keep  a  boy  at  a  public  school  are  such  as  to  deter  any  but 
parents  with  relatively  large  incomes.  The  English  public 
school  is  unquestionably  a  class  school,  with  entrance  thereto 
resting  primarily  upon  a  financial  basis. 

Characteristics  of  the  Public  Schools.  —  The  English  boy 
of  the  public-school  type  leaves  home  when  he  is  nine  or  ten 
years  old,  remains  three  or  four  years  at  a  preparatory  school, 
from  four  to  six  years  at  a  public  school,  and  finishes  up  with 
three  or  four  years  at  the  university,  throughout  this  whole 
period  spending  only  the  various  holidays  under  the  family 
roof.  He  associates  entirely  with  those  of  his  own  sex ;  he  is 
taught  exclusively  by  men ;  in  fact,  throughout  the  long  terms 
at  school,  the  only  direct  feminine  influence  that  comes  into 
his  life  is  the  contact  with  the  wife  or  the  family  of  his 
house  master.  His  is  distinctly  a  masculine  environment.  It 
would  be  too  much  to  suggest  that  this  is  responsible  for  the 
fine,  manly,  vigorous  type  of  English  public-school-university 
man,  but  it  certainly  is  a  contributing  factor  of  considerable 
significance.  Throughout  it  all,  character  building  has 
stood  for  more  than  intellectual  attainment.  Not  that  the 
English  system  has  not  produced  scholars,  but  its  dominant 
purpose  withal  has  been  the  development  of  strong,  healthy 
boys,  upright  and  noble,  and  with  a  highly  skilled  training 
in  leadership.  Herein  lies  one  great  difference  between  the 
English  schools  and  the  continental  schools  that  we  have  been 
considering.  Of  course  the  system  has  its  evils,  but  it  has 
also  developed  its  virtues. 

PREPARATORY  SCHOOLS.  —  Preparation  for  the  pub- 
lic school  is  provided  chiefly  in  a  number  of  private-venture 
schools  known  as  "  preparatory  schools."  The  English 
preparatory  school  thus  differs  widely  from  the  American 
school  of  the  same  name.  The  former  prepares  for  the  Eng- 
ligh  public  school ;  the  latter  for  the  American  college.  The 
English  preparatory  school  is  not  a  secondary  school  at  all. 
It  obtains  its  pupils  from  dame  schools,  other  private  schools 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  131 

of  an  elementary  grade,  or  from  private  tutors,  keeps  them 
three  or  four  years,  and  turns  them  over  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
or  fourteen  to  the  public  schools.  These  preparatory  schools 
are  likewise  boarding  schools  which  reproduce  as  nearly  as 
they  can  the  life  and  conditions  of  their  successors. 

OTHER  TYPES  OF  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.  —  Close 
behind  the  nine  great  public  schools  follows  another  group  of 
public  schools,  including  Marlborough,  Clifton,  Uppingham, 
and  the  like,  some  of  them  schools  upon  very  old  founda- 
tions, others  dating  from  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  They  all  imitate  the  great  public  schools  more 
or  less  closely  but,  whether  on  account  of  their  youth  or 
otherwise,  they  have  never  succeeded  in  accumulating  the 
mass  of  traditions  and  the  illustrious  rolls  of  their  more 
famous  fellows.  On  the  basis  of  subjects  taught,  general 
organization,  subservience  to  the  requirements  of  the  older 
universities  and  scholarship  examinations,  and  dominance  of 
the  classical  influence,  only  an  imaginary  differentiation 
exists  between  these  schools  and  the  great  public  schools. 

Another  representative  type  of  the  English  secondary  school 
appears  in  the  great  day  schools  like  Dulwich  and  the  Man- 
chester, Bradford,  and  Bedford  Grammar  Schools.  Although 
many  of  these  are  likewise  foundation  schools  and  are  several 
times  centenarians,  the  non-resident  character  of  their  school 
population  has  not  been  conducive  to  the  accumulated  tradi- 
tion that  centers  around  the  boarding  public  schools.  Never- 
theless they  are  not  handicapped  by  the  narrow  spirit  of 
classicism  that  still  dominates  so  much  of  the  public  school 
life,  and  they  have  thoroughly  organized  modern  sides,  with 
well-equipped  laboratories,  museums,  and  shops. 

A  fourth  class  of  secondary  schools  is  the  ordinary  gram- 
mar school,  likewise  on  private  foundation,  but  with  a  dis- 
tinctly local  following.  These  are  largely  imitators  of  the 
public  schools,  as  far  as  aims  and  programs  are  concerned, 
save  that  they  manage  to  have  acquired  most  of  the  short- 


132  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

comings  and  but  few  of  the  virtues  of  the  older  institutions. 
Their  fees  are  lower ;  probably  two  thirds  or  more  of  their 
pupils  are  non-boarders ;  their  courses  are  fully  as  classical 
as  are  those  of  the  public  schools ;  their  equipment  is  usually 
most  meager,  with  scanty  facilities  for  science  teaching,  and 
with  the  modern  language  instruction  largely  inadequate. 

Aside  from  a  very  numerous  and  probably  worse  than 
mediocre  group  of  distinctly  private-venture  schools  (es- 
timated in  1898  to  enroll  40  per  cent  of  the  boys,  and  70  per 
cent  of  the  girls  attending  a  secondary  school),  this  practi- 
cally covered  the  opportunities  for  secondary  education  in 
England  up  to  the  reform  act  of  1902.  Then  for  the  first 
time  secondary  education  became  a  national  concern.  It  is 
true  that  various  local  authorities  had  provided  scholarships 
in  the  existing  secondary  schools  previous  to  that  period,  but 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  as  late  as  1900  the  number  of  such 
scholarships  in  secondary  schools  held  by  former  pupils,  both 
boys  and  girls,  of  the  public  elementary  schools  was  only 
between  5000  and  5500  for  all  England,  the  opportunities 
for  any  popular  secondary  education  were  relatively  neg- 
ligible. Such  opportunities  are  still  limited,  but  the  progress 
registered  since  1902  is  really  remarkable. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1899.  —  The 
education  act  of  1899  made  an  attempt  to  whip  the  various 
conflicting  educational  interests  into  line  and  to  reduce  the 
chaos  to  a  semblance  of  order.  Much  indeed  was  accom- 
plished at  that  time  as  well  as  by  the  supplementary  legis- 
lation of  1902  and  more  recent  years.  All  efforts  point  to  a 
closer  coordination  between  elementary  and  secondary  schools, 
and  the  next  legislation,  as  already  outlined  by  the  responsible 
authorities  (1913),  will  undoubtedly  make  it  more  and  more 
possible  for  the  humblest  child  who  has  the  requisite  intel- 
lectual ability  to  finish  his  university  course,  and  thus  go  far 
toward  a  complete  democratization  of  English  education. 

In  accordance  with  the  act  of  1899,  a  national  board  of 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  133 

education  was  created  in  the  spring  of  1900,  consisting  of  a 
president  and  various  other  members  of  the  cabinet  as  co- 
adjutors. This  has  been  facetiously  called  a  "  phantom  " 
board,  inasmuch  as  the  full  board  never  meets,  the  president 
alone  constituting  a  quorum  and  therefore  being  empowered 
to  determine  and  to  order  the  policy  of  the  board.  As  such 
this  board  has  entire  charge  of  public  education  in  England 
and  Wales,  including  within  its  powers  practically  all  those 
that  had  previously  been  distributed  among  several  educa- 
tional and  quasi-educational  authorities.  Below  the  president 
is  a  permanent  secretary  with  rather  large  powers.  Al- 
though the  president  is  a  member  of  the  ministry  with  the 
natural  uncertainty  of  tenure  attendant  thereupon,  a  measur- 
able continuity  of  policy  is  assured  through  the  office  of  the 
above-mentioned  permanent  secretary,  but  this  is  a  guarantee 
by  grace  rather  than  by  right,  such  as  may  be  said  to  exist  in 
the  systems  of  France  and  Germany.  The  work  of  the  central 
office  is  further  supplemented  by  a  force  of  inspectors  for 
each  branch  of  the  service. 

By  the  act  of  1902,  the  old  school  boards  were  legislated 
out  of  existence,  and  county  councils  and  county  borough 
councils  were  made  the  sole  authorities  in  matters  of  educa- 
tion other  than  elementary.  Thus  there  were  in  England  and 
Wales  (July  31,  1911),  London  and  forty-nine  other  adminis- 
trative counties,  as  well  as  seventy-one  county  boroughs 
(towns  of  50,000  inhabitants  and  upwards)  whose  councils 
exercise  entire  control  over  secondary  education  within  their 
respective  limits.  In  each  case  the  practical  direction  is 
intrusted  to  an  education  committee  of  the  larger  body,  but 
the  ultimate  financial  control  is  vested  in  the  full  council. 
These  local  authorities  are  directed  to  consider  the  educational 
needs  of  their  districts  and  take  such  steps  as  may  seem  ad- 
visable after  consultation  with  the  Board  of  Education,  in 
order  to  "  supply  or  aid  in  supply  of  education  other  than 
elementary."  In  some  cases  these  various  councils  have 


134  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

established  secondary  schools  of  their  own ;  in  some  cases 
they  have  made  grants  to  or  awarded  scholarships  for  schools 
already  existing. 

Submission  to  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Education  by 
any  secondary  school,  whether  municipal,  private,  or  endowed, 
is  a  thoroughly  voluntary  matter  on  the  part  of  the  governing 
body  of  the  school  in  question.  If  it  desires  government  aid 
or  government  recognition,  it  must  conform  to  government 
requirements  and  submit  to  government  inspection.  Gov- 
ernment recognition  is  extended  to  two  types  of  schools : 
(i)  those  on  the  grant  list ;  and  (2)  those  recognized  as  "  effi- 
cient "  schools  not  on  the  grant  list.  The  figures  for  Eng- 
land and  Wales  (1911-1912)  were  995  for  the  former  and  102 
for  the  latter,  enrolling  (January  31,  1912)  166,081  and 
18,975  Pupils,  respectively,  100,000  boys  and  85,000  girls. 
Of  the  885  secondary  schools  in  England  proper  eligible  for 
grants  in  1911-1912,  381  were  controlled  by  local  authorities, 
428  were  endowed  schools,  and  the  remainder  were  adminis- 
tered by  religious  or  philanthropic  organizations.  Among 
these  schools  falling  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Board  of 
Education  are  representatives  of  all  types  of  secondary  schools 
save  only  the  great  public  schools,  which  have  thus  far  been 
too  jealous  of  their  time-honored  freedom  to  submit  to  any 
semblance  of  control  at  the  hands  of  the  national  educational 
authority. 

SECONDARY  SCHOOL  DEFINED.  —  According  to  the 
regulations  of  the  Board,  a  secondary  school  is  one  that 
"  offers  to  each  of  its  pupils  an  education  of  a  wider  scope  and 
higher  grade  than  that  of  an  elementary  school  ...  in  the 
subjects  necessary  to  a  good  general  education  upon  lines 
suitable  for  pupils  of  an  average  age-range  at  least  as  wide 
as  from  twelve  to  sixteen  or  seventeen."  "  A  school  will 
not  be  recognized  as  a  secondary  school  unless  (i)  an  adequate 
proportion  of  the  pupils  remain  at  least  four  years  in  the 
school,  and  (2)  an  adequate  proportion  of  the  pupils  remain 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  135 

in  the  school  up  to  and  beyond  the  age  of  sixteen."     In  rural 
districts  and  small  towns,  this  may  be  changed  to  three  years 
in  place  of  four,  and  to  fifteen  instead  of  sixteen  years  of  age. 
REGULATIONS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF   EDUCATION.  - 

Aside  from  regulations  with  respect  to  building  and  equip- 
ment, approval  of  curriculum  and  time-table,  length  of  school 
day  and  year,  adequacy  and  competence  of  the  teaching  staff, 
permanency  of  salary,1  reasonableness  of  fees,  reports  to  the 
Board,  opportunity  for  inspection,  and  various  other  details, 
the  Board  insists  upon  entire  freedom  from  denominational 
tests,  requirements  as  to  religious  observances  or  attendance 
upon  religious  exercises  of  the  school  as  far  as  day  pupils  are 
concerned,  and  furthermore  demands  ordinarily  that  where 
tuition  is  charged,2  25  per  cent  of  the  places  shall  be  open  to 
qualified  pupils  from  the  public  elementary  schools  without 

1  In  view  of  the  wide  variability  in  teachers'  salaries,  it  is  almost  futile  to 
quote  any  figures.     The  average  English  assistant  master's  salary  is  said  to  be 
£120  ($600)  per  year  for  non-resident  teachers.     When  one  finds  a  university 
graduate  living  at  school  beginning  on  as  little  as  £15  ($75)  per  year,  the  pitiful 
condition  of  some  of  these  unfortunates  reminds  one  of  the  days  of  Dotheboys' 
Hall.     This  same  individual  finally  rose  to  £140,  non-resident,  after  nine  years 
of  service.     In  comparison  with  this  the  London  County  Council  scale  of  £150 
($750),  rising  by  £10  annual  increments  to  £300  ($1500),  and  in  special  cases  to 
£350   ($1750)    appears  positively   munificent.     Headmasters'   salaries  present 
a  pleasing  contrast,  for  in  some  of  the  endowed  schools  they  run  as  high  as 
£5000  ($25,000),  the  ordinary  average  amounting  to  ten  times  that  of  the  assis- 
tant masters.     Even  in  municipally  supported  schools,  the  difference  is  con- 
siderable, though  probably  never  reaching  this  figure.     Compared  with  conti- 
nental salaries,   the   English  assistant   master  is  very  much   underpaid,   and 
the  headmaster  correspondingly  overpaid. 

2  Of  the  862  secondary  schools  in  England  on  the  grant  list  of  the  Board  in 
1910-191 1,  municipal  as  well  as  endowed,  all  but  one  charged  fees  for  instruction 
ranging  from  "not  over  one  guinea"  (85.25)  to  "over  twenty  guineas"  per  year, 
the  average  for  all  schools  amounting  to  between   seven  and  eight  guineas,  with 
the  figure  of  greatest  frequency  for  the  municipal  schools  falling  between  six 
and  seven  guineas,  and  the  charges  in  the  foundation  and  other  schools  averag- 
ing about  two  guineas  higher.     In  forty-six  out  of  forty-nine  schools  under 
Catholic  auspices,  the  fees  were  not  more  than  nine  guineas  per  year,  while  in 
twenty-seven  out  of  twenty-nine  schools  administered  by  the  "  Girls'  Day  School 
Trust,"  they  were  between  seventeen  and  eighteen  guineas. 


136          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

fee.  When  all  these  conditions  have  been  complied  with  and 
the  instruction  is  otherwise  satisfactory,  the  school  is  eligible 
to  annual  per  capita  grants  from  the  Board,  £2  ($10)  for  each 
pupil  between  ten  and  twelve  who  has  previously  attended  a 
public  elementary  school  for  two  years,  and  £5  ($25)  for  each 
pupil  between  twelve  and  eighteen  years  of  age.  Other  extra 
or  special  grants  are  accorded  for  conformity  to  certain  specific 
conditions.  The  total  amount  of  such  parliamentary  grants 
for  current  expenses  (England  alone)  under  the  caption 
"  Secondary  schools,  preparatory  classes,  pupil-teachers, 
and  bursars"  for  1910-1911  (almost  all  of  which  was  for 
secondary  schools)  amounted  to  £417,749,  approximately 
two  millions  of  dollars.  This  sum  represents  only  about 
one  quarter  of  the  ordinary  current  expenses  of  those  same 
schools. 

OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  FREE  EDUCATION.  —  On  Jan- 
uary 31,  1912,  the  995  secondary  schools  in  England  and 
Wales  on  the  grant  list  of  the  Board  of  Education  enrolled 
166,081  boys  and  girls,  of  whom  55,703,  or  33  per  cent,  were 
former  public  elementary  school  pupils  on  the  free  list.  The 
excess  over  the  25  per  cent  required  by  the  Board  is  accounted 
for  by  the  inclusion  of  a  number  of  foundation  or  other  scholar- 
ships offered  by  the  governing  bodies  of  endowed  schools. 
This  represents  an  enormous  expansion  of  the  opportunity 
for  secondary  education  available  for  children  of  the  working 
classes  when  compared  with  the  situation  before  the  passage 
of  the  act  of  1902.  In  spite  of  the  marvelous  progress  here 
noted,  the  opportunities  for  free  education  in  secondary 
schools  are  not  uniform  the  country  over.  In  London  there 
is  one  free  place  for  every  70  children  over  five  years  of  age 
in  average  attendance  at  the  public  elementary  schools. 
Westmoreland  offers  the  most  favorable  opportunities  of  all 
the  English  counties,  the  number  of  free  places  reaching  as 
high  as  one  in  48,  while  Oxfordshire  falls  at  the  other  end  of 
the  list  with  only  one  for  every  170  elementary  school  children. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 


137 


Present  Conditions.  —  Despite  the  efforts  of  the  Board  of 
Education  to  extend  the  secondary  course  by  suggestion  and 
regulation  and  to  hold  the  pupils  in  school,  the  results  are 
yet  far  from  satisfactory.  Pupils  enter  too  young  and  leave 
too  young.  The  age  distribution  is  thoroughly  surprising 
when  one  considers  that  the  course  of  study  is  planned  on 
the  assumption  of  a  12  to  17  year  age  range,  and  an  "  effi- 
cient "  school,  according  to  the  standard  laid  down  by  the 
Board  of  Education,  is  supposed  to  hold  "  an  adequate  pro- 
portion" of  its  pupils  "up  to  and  beyond  the  age  of  six- 
teen." For  885  schools  in  England  on  the  grant  list  in  1911- 
1912,  the  sex  and  age  distribution  January  31,  1912,  was  as 
follows : 

SECONDARY   SCHOOLS  —  FULL-TIME  PUPILS 

CLASSIFIED  ACCORDING  TO  AGE  AT  BEGINNING  OF  SCHOOL  YEAR 

1911-1912 


BOYS 

GIRLS 

TOTAL 

i  Under  1  2  years  of  age       .... 
212  and  under  16  years  of  age     .     . 
3  1  6  and  under  18  years  of  age     .     . 
4  1  8  years  of  age  and  over       .     .     . 

21,752 
54,833 
4,441 
357 

17,675 
43,79° 
7,118 

639 

39,427 
98,623 

n,559 
996 

8i,3«3 

69,222 

150,605 

Returns  for  the  years  1908-1911  show  that  in  schools  on 
the  Board's  grant  list,  the  average  school  life  after  the  age  of 
twelve  of  all  boys  who  left  during  that  period  was  only  two 
years  and  eight  months,  while  for  girls  under  the  same  con- 
ditions it  was  one  month  longer,  the  average  age  at  leaving 
school  being  fifteen  years  and  seven  months,  and  sixteen 
years,  respectively.  More  efforts  are  evidently  being  made 
to  lower  the  age  for  scholarship  eligibility  than  to  retain  the 
pupils  in  school  until  a  later  age,  considerable  pressure  being 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  Board  to  pay  grants  on  all  pupils 


138  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

between  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age  instead  of  restricting 
the  basis  to  the  former  elementary  pupils  alone.  Economic 
conditions  in  general,  the  recent  industrial  prosperity  that 
England  has  enjoyed,  and  the  large  demand  for  cheap  clerical 
labor  that  young  people  of  a  yet  tender  age  can  perform  satis- 
factorily make  it  extremely  difficult  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  secondary  schools  over  which  the  Board  has  jurisdiction 
to  hold  their  pupils  beyond  the  age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years.  They  leave  almost  in  mid-course,  just  at  the  time 
when  the  instruction  ought  to  be  of  greatest  value  to  them. 

PROGRAM  OF  STUDIES.  —  It  would  be  more  difficult 
to  select  a  type  program  for  the  grant  schools  or  even  for  those 
under  municipal  control  than  in  the  case  of  the  public  schools, 
for  the  headmaster  is  given  almost  unlimited  power  in  the 
matter,  the  Board  contenting  itself  with  very  general  require- 
ments. In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  code,  the 
subjects  of  the  program  of  studies  are  as  follows :  English 
language  and  literature,  with  at  least  one  other  language  than 
English.  Special  permission,  however,  may  be  obtained  to 
omit  the  foreign  language  if  the  English  provides  "  adequate 
linguistic  and  literary  training."  This  rather  vague  expres- 
sion is  not  defined,  and  it  is  left  for  the  Board,  or  in  practice 
for  its  inspectors,  to  determine.  Geography,  history,  mathe- 
matics, science,  and  drawing  must  also  appear  in  the  program, 
together  with  provision  for  "  organized  games,  physical 
exercises,  manual  instruction,  and  singing."  Girls'  schools 
further  offer  "  practical  instruction  in  domestic  subjects, 
such  as  needlework,  cookery,  laundrywork,  housekeeping, 
and  household  hygiene ;  and  an  approved  course  in  a  com- 
bination of  these  subjects  may  for  girls  over  fifteen  years  of 
age  be  substituted  partially  or  wholly  for  science  and  for 
mathematics,  other  than  arithmetic."  If  there  are  two 
languages  aside  from  English,  the  Board  must  be  satisfied 
that  the  omission  of  Latin,  if  such  be  done,  is  for  the  educa- 
tional advantage  of  the  school. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  139 

Relatively  little  advantage  has  been  taken  of  the  possi- 
bility of  omitting  Latin,  for  it  still  appears  (1912)  on  the 
programs  of  85  per  cent  of  the  schools  on  the  grant  list.  One 
must  not  infer  that  this  proportion  of  all  the  pupils  in  these 
schools  is  studying  Latin,  but  merely  that  the  subject  is  found 
somewhere  in  the  course  of  that  relative  number  of  schools. 
Two  decades  ago,  the  emphasis  of  the  education  authorities 
was  largely  in  the  direction  of  encouraging  science  study ; 
later  literary  instruction  came  to  the  fore,  with  the  teaching 
of  English  occupying  the  center  of  attention  as  far  as  schools 
that  end  at  the  sixteenth  year  were  concerned  ;  to-day  adapta- 
tion to  local  needs  and  specialization  seem  to  have  monopolized 
the  interest.  "  The  school  course  may,  under  the  elastic 
provisions  of  the  Board's  regulations,  be  given  a  certain 
bias  throughout.  Thus  in  a  rural  school  instruction  in  all  or 
nearly  all  the  subjects  taken  may  have  regard  to  the  agricul- 
tural or  other  rural  occupations  which  the  majority  of  the 
pupils  may  be  expected  to  take  up ;  the  branches  of  physical 
science  taught  may  be  so  chosen  and  dealt  with  as  to  be 
brought  into  clear  connection  with  their  application  to  such 
occupations ;  arithmetic  and  geometry  may  be  applied  in 
practice  to  such  matters  as  keeping  of  accounts  and  land 
surveying,  and  even  the  instruction  in  English  subjects  and 
in  modern  languages  may  keep  the  same  object  in  view." 
Furthermore,  the  "  Board  are  prepared  to  approve  suitable 
schemes  for  specialization  of  higher  work  in  classics,  in  mathe- 
matics and  physical  science,  in  modern  languages,  taken 
in  connection  with  history  or  economics,  in  art,  and  as 
regards  girls  in  the  important  group  of  subjects  included 
within  the  general  term  of  housecraft,  such  as  cookery, 
laundrywork,  housekeeping,  and  household  hygiene,  dress- 
making, and  the  care  of  the  sick  or  of  babies  and  young  chil- 
dren." In  any  event,  this  specialization  can  only  take  place 
after  a  good  general  foundation  has  been  laid,  facilities  for 
such  teaching  must  be  adequate,  and  it  may  in  no  case  trench 


140          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

upon  the  "  proper  sphere  of  the  technical  school  or  other 
institution  of  specialized  instruction." 

Only  by  such  indirect  means  as  suggestions  of  this  nature 
are  the  English  central  educational  authorities  able  to  bring 
about  changes  in  the  programs  of  the  schools.  The  Board 
is  willing  to  approve  programs  of  studies  showing  certain 
characteristics ;  approval  of  programs,  other  conditions  being 
met,  means  eligibility  for  grants;  and  this  ultimately  means 
financial  support  and  government  backing.  Thus  is  the 
English  system  of  secondary  education  growing  and  develop- 
ing. As  a  system  it  is  still  far  behind  that  in  France  or  in 
Germany,  but  it  is  yet  young ;  its  opportunities  are  stretch- 
ing out  before ;  it  has  already  discarded  the  old  scheme  of 
payment  by  results ;  and  although  the  ancient  system  of 
tuition  fees  still  prevails  even  in  municipally  supported  schools, 
the  increasing  number  of  scholarships  available  for  public 
elementary  school  pupils  and  the  attention  being  devoted 
to  this  subject  by  the  present  Board  lead  one  to  hope  that 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  every  child  of  proved  intellec- 
tual ability,  whatever  the  financial  condition  of  his  family, 
may  find  his  educational  opportunities  limited  only  by  his 
own  ambitions. 

COMPARATIVE  FIGURES  FOR  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 
POPULATION.  —  It  may  be  interesting  to  append  com- 
parative statistics  showing  the  secondary  school  population 
of  the  three  countries  just  considered,  together  with  that  of 
the  United  States.  One  must  be  warned,  however,  that  these 
figures  are  not  altogether  parallel,  the  age  limits  differing 
materially  (England  approximately  n  to  18  ;  France,  6  to  18  ; 
Prussia,  9  to  18;  and  the  United  States,  14  to  18  years),  and 
the  nomenclature  employed  following  the  usage  of  the  country 
in  question. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe 
SECONDARY  SCHOOL  POPULATION 


141 


COUNTRY 

POPULATION 

SECONDARY  SCHOOL 
PUPILS 
Boys                   Girls 

TOTALS 

RATIO  OF  SCHOOL 
POPULATION  TO 
TOTAL  POPULATION 

England 

36,075,269 

96,789          81,573 

178,362 

I  :    2O2 

and  Wales 

(iQIl) 

Grant  list  and 

"efficient"  schools 

(1911) 

France 

39,601,509 

96,791          34,989 

131,780 

i  :  300 

(alone) 

(1911) 

Lycecs,  colleges, 

and  secondary 

courses,  France 

and  Algeria 

(1910) 

Prussia 

40,163,333 

232,792        95,492 

328,284 

i  :  122 

(1910) 

Public  higher 

schools  (Hohere 

Schulen) 

(1911) 

United 

91,972,266 

489,048     616,312 

1,105,360 

i:     83 

States 

(1910) 

Public  high 

schools 

(1911-1912) 

TOPICS   FOR  FURTHER   STUDY 

1 .  Compare  the  secondary  school  organization  in  France  and  Germany. 

2.  Compare  compulsory  attendance  regulations  in  France,  Germany, 
and  England. 

3.  Compare  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  centralized  school  con- 
trol. 

4.  Compare  school  athletics  in  France,  Germany,  and  England. 

5.  Compare  length  of  the  school  year  in  France,  Germany,  England, 
and  the  United  States. 

6.  Compare   aims   and  methods  of   instruction  of   each   subject  of 
secondary  school  study  in  any  of  the  foreign  school  systems. 

7.  Compare    influence  of  national   ideals  in  determining   aims   and 
methods  of  instruction  of  the  various  subjects  of  instruction. 

8.  Formal  spelling  docs  not  figure  among  the  subjects  of  instruction 
even  in  the  elementary  classes  of  the  secondary  schools  abroad.     How 
is  this  subject  taught  ? 


i_p  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

9.    Make  a  diagram  showing  comparative  lengths  of  secondary  courses 
in  France,  Germany,  England,  and  the  United  States. 

10.  Compare  the  time  allotment  for  any  subject  of  instruction  in  a 
foreign  secondary  school  with  that  of  the  corresponding  subject  in  the 
United  States. 

11.  In  the  French  and  German  secondary  schools  most  subjects  con- 
tinue throughout  the  course.     Contrast  the  results  of  this  method  with 
those  obtained  from  the  practice  which  prevails  in  the  United  States  of 
pursuing  a  few  subjects  intensively. 

12.  How  do  you  account  for  the  existence  of  the  American  practice 
as  noted  above  ? 

13.  The  training  of  secondary  teachers  abroad. 

14.  The  position  of  the  teacher  in  any  foreign  school  system  in  com- 
parison with  his  position  in  the  United  States. 

15.  Teachers'  pensions  in  France  and  Germany. 

16.  To  what  extent  have  the  school  organization,  aims,  or  methods 
of  instruction  in  any  foreign  secondary  school  system    influenced   the 
corresponding  development  in  the  United  States  ? 

17.  Contrast  an  English  "Public"  School  with  an  American   public 
school.     (Select  a  particular  school  in  each  instance.) 

18.  Evaluate  the  attainments  of  the  French  or  German  boy  on  leaving 
the  secondary  school  in  terms  of  American  educational  progress. 

REFERENCES  —  FRANCE 

Assistant  Masters'  Association,  England.  Conditions  of  Service  of 
Teachers  in  English  and  Foreign  Secondary  Schools.  London,  1910. 

Documents : 

Bulletin  administratif  du  Ministcrc  de  I' instruction  publique  (weekly). 

Official  publication  of  the  Education  Department. 
Enquete  sur  Vcnseigncment  secondaire.     Report  of  the  Ribot  Commis- 
sion.    Paris,  1899. 

COMPAYRE,  G.  Education  in  France.  In  MOXROE,  Cvclopedia  of 
Education.  New  York,  IQII. 

FARRIXGTON",  F.  E.     French  Secondary  Schools.     New  York,  1910. 

GIRARD,  R.  DE.     Questions  d'cnscignement  secondaire.     Paris,   1905. 

Great  Britain,  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports  on  Educational  Sub- 
jects. Vol.  NXIY,  Secondary  and  University  Education  in  France. 
Contains  a  complete  English  translation  of  the  present  secondary 
school  curriculum. 

HUGHES.  R.  E.  The  Making  of  Citizens;  a  Study  in  Comparative  Edu- 
cation. New  York,  1902. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  143 

LANGLOIS,  CH.  V.     La  Question  dc  Venseignement  sccondairc  en  France 

ct  a  I'etranger.     Paris,  1900. 
PERKINS,    H.    A.     The  Educational    System   of    France.      Editc.  Rev., 

March,  1911. 
Plan  d' etudes  ct  programmes  d'enseignement  dans  les  lycecs  ct  colleges  de 

garqons.     Paris,  1913. 
Plan  d'etudcs  ct  programmes  d'enseignement  dans  les  lycecs  ct  colleges  dc 

jeuncs  Jlllcs.     Paris,  1913. 
SADLER,  M.  E.     The  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education  in  Germany  and 

Elsewhere.     In  Great  Britain,  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports 

on  Educational  Subjects.     Vol.  IX.     London,  1902. 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education.     Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of 

Education  (annual).     Especially.  1906,  I,  pp.  19-26  (discussion  of 

the  "law  of  separation");   1907,  I,  pp.  142-157;   1908,  I,  pp.  230- 

238;    1909,  I,  pp.  420-432. 

REFERENCES  —  GERMANY 

Assistant  Mast  crs'  Association,  England.  Conditions  of  Service  of  Teachers 
in  English  and  Foreign  Secondary  Schools.  London,  1910. 

BOLTOX,  F.  E.  The  Secondary  School  System  of  Germany.  New  York, 
1 900. 

BROWX,  J.  F.  The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Secondary  Schools  in  Ger- 
many and  the  United  States.  New  York,  1911. 

Great  Britain,  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects. 
Vol.  I,  The  Realschulcn  in  Berlin.  —  The  Oberrealschidcn  of  Prussia. 
Vol.  Ill,  Problems  in  Prussian  Secondary  Education  for  Boys.  — 
Curricula  and  Programs.  Yol.  XX,  Teaching  of  Classics  in  Prus- 
sian Secondary  Schools. 

GULDXER,  H.  Die  hohercn  Lehranstalten  fur  die  ivciblickc  Jugcnd  in 
Preusscn.  Halle,  1013. 

HUGHES,  R.  E.  The  Making  of  Citizens ;  a  Study  in  Comparative  Edu- 
cation. New  York,  1902. 

LEXIS,  W.  Das  Unterrichtswesen  im  deutschen  Reich,  Yol.  II.  Berlin, 
1904. 

NORWOOD,  C.,  and  HOPE,  A.  H.  Higher  Education  of  Boys  in  England. 
London,  1909. 

PAULSEX,  F.  German  Education  Past  and  Present.  Trans,  by  Lorenz. 
New  York,  1008. 

PRETTVMAX,  C.  \V.  Higher  Girls'  Schools  of  Prussia.  Teachers  College 
Record,  May,  1911. 

RUSSKLL.  J.  E.     German  Higher  Schools.   2cl  ed.     New  York,  1905. 


144  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

SADLER,  M.  E.  The  Unrest  in  Secondary  Education  in  Germany  and 
Elsewhere.  In  Great  Britain,  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports 
on  Educational  Subjects.  Vol.  IX.  London,  1902. 

Statistisches  Jahrbuch  der  hoheren  Schulen  (annual).     Leipzig. 

United  States  Bureau  of  Education.  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  (annual).  Articles  usually  appear  under  Education 
in  Central  Europe. 

ZIERTMANN,  P.  Education  in  Germany.  In  MONROE,  Cyclopedia  of 
Education.  New  York,  1912. 

REFERENCES  —  ENGLAND 

Assistant    Masters'    Association,    England.     Conditions    of   Service    of 

Teachers  in  English  and  Foreign  Secondary  Schools.     London,  1910. 
BALFOUR,  G.     Educational  Systems  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.     2d 

ed.     Oxford,  1903. 

Board  of  Education.     Reports  (annual).    Latest  1911-1912. 
Statistics  of  Public  Education  in  England  and  Wales  (annual). 

Part  I.     Educational.   Latest  1910-1911. 

Part  II.     Financial.     Latest  1910-1911-1912. 
Office  of  Special  Inquiries  and  Reports. 

Educational  Pamphlets.     See  particularly  series  on  The  Modern  Side 
at  Secondary  Schools. 

Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects.     Vols.  I,  XXII. 
BURSTALL,  S.  A.,  and  DOUGLAS,  M.  A.     Public  Schools  for  Girls.   London, 

1911. 

CORBIN,  J.     Schoolboy  Life  in  England.     New  York,  1898. 
HUGHES,  R.  E.     The  Making  of  Citizens;  a  Study  in  Comparative  Edu- 
cation.    New  York,  1902. 

MACLEAN,  A.  H.  H.     The  Law  of  Secondary  Schools.     London,  1909. 
MINCHIN,  J.   G.   C.     Our  Public  Schools;    their  Influence  on  English 

History.     London,  1901. 
MONTMORENCY,  J.  E.  G.  DE.     National  Education  and  National  Life. 

London,  1906. 
Progress  of  Education  in  England.     English  Educational  Organization 

from  Early  Times  to  1904.     London,  1904. 
NORWOOD,  C.,  and  HOPE,  A.  H.     Higher  Education  of  Boys  in  England. 

London,  1909. 

Public  Schools  from  Within.  London,  1906. 
Public  Schools  Yearbook  (annual).  London. 
SANDIFORD,  P.  The  Training  of  Teachers  in  England  and  Wales.  New 

York,  1910. 


Secondary  Education  in  Europe  145 

Schoolmasters'  Yearbook  (annual).     London. 

SMITH,  A.  S.  Education  in  England.  In  MONROE,  Cyclopedia  of  Edu- 
cation. New  York,  191 1. 

United  States  Bureau  of  Education.  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  (annual).  Chapters  on  Education  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  Especially  1911,  I,  pp.  541-550. 

YOXALL,  J.  H.,  and  GRAY,  E.  The  Red  Code  (annual).  London.  Con- 
tains official  regulations  of  the  Board  of  Education. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   HIGH   SCHOOL   SYSTEMS   OF   THE   UNITED 
STATES 

STATE  SYSTEMS.  —  The  high  school  of  the  United  States 
has,  upon  the  whole,  evolved  from  the  free  elementary  school. 
Its  development  has  followed  that  of  its  progenitor  by  ap- 
proximately a  quarter  of  a  century,  so  that  in  many  states 
it  remains  as  yet  almost  entirely  unsystematized,  so  far  as 
the  legal  aspect  is  concerned. 

Legal  Provisions.  —  In  a  number  of  states,  only  the  most 
general  legal  provision  is  made  for  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  such  schools,  while  in  a  few  of  the  Southern 
and  in  at  least  one  of  the  Northern  states,  New  Jersey,  no 
special  legal  provision  is  made  for  them,  such  schools  as  exist 
being  considered  merely  as  the  higher  grades  of  the  public 
schools.  Most  of  the  states  have,  however,  made  definite 
legal  provision  for  these'  schools,  and  a  large  number,  such 
as  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Indiana,  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  and  California,  have  evolved  comprehensive 
independent  laws  governing  the  establishment,  maintenance, 
and  management  of  such  schools.  But  the  legal  provisions 
even  of  these  states  differ  widely  among  themselves,  so  that 
the  laws  governing  this  institution  in  the  United  States  range 
from  indefinite  and  badly  denned  codes  in  certain  states  to 
clear  and  specific  legislation  in  others. 

The  General  Type.  —  Nevertheless  the  high  schools  in 
the  various  states  have  a  remarkable  resemblance  in  external 
and  internal  management  and  control,  as  well  as  in  their 
curricula.  In  general  no  greater  differences  exist  internally 

146 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States      147 

between  the  high  schools  of  Maine  and  those  of  California 
than  may  be  found  to  exist  between  the  different  high  schools 
of  any  given  commonwealth.  This  similarity  is  due  to  a 
number  of  factors  in  American  life  and  American  educational 
practices.  In  the  first  place,  the  elementary  schools,  the 
feeders  of  the  high  schools,  resemble  one  another  even  more 
closely  than  do  the  high  schools.  The  colleges,  the  universi- 
ties, and  particularly  the  state  universities,  the  institutions 
that  largely  receive  the  output  of  the  high  schools,  also  closely 
resemble  one  another. 

The  explanation  of  this  close  resemblance  of  the  various 
types  of  schools  in  the  American  system  of  education  is  largely 
due  to  imitation,  brought  about  by  the  following  facts  and 
conditions :  (i)  most  of  the  states  of  the  Union  are  relatively 
new  and  their  populations  have  been  largely  recruited  from 
the  other  older  states ;  (2)  the  Americans  are  a  migrating 
people,  and  recognize  no  state  boundaries  in  their  shifting 
from  place  to  place  ;  (3)  there  is  wide  communication  through 
travel,  books,  and  periodicals ;  (4)  national  and  state  con- 
ventions of  teachers,  principals,  and  superintendents  are  held 
annually,  —  the  state  conventions  usually  employing  outside 
instructors  to  present  the  work ;  (5)  teachers  are  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  recruited  from  the  country  at  large  rather 
than  from  the  local  community  and  state  alone ;  (6)  students 
frequently  leave  their  own  communities  and  state  to  prepare 
for  their  work  of  teaching.  In  addition  the  laws  governing 
the  establishment,  maintenance,  and  support  of  all  of  these 
types  of  schools  have  been  more  or  less  influenced  by  the  laws 
and  practices  of  other  states. 

In  no  point,  however,  do  the  high  schools  of  the  Union  so 
closely  resemble  one  another  as  in  their  curricula.  This  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  this  institution  has  been,  and  is  to-day,  fun- 
damentally a  preparatory  school  to  the  colleges  and  univer- 
sities, which  by  association  and  concerted  action  have  set  a 
more  or  less  definite  standard  of  requirement  for  entrance, 


148  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

and  thus  to  a  large  degree  have  dictated  a  common  curriculum 
for  these  schools. 

Ever  since  the  rise  of  the  high  school  in  this  country  its 
ablest  advocates  have  dreamed  of  it  as  the  finishing  college 
of  the  common  people ;  but  as  yet  the  fruition  of  this  dream 
has  not  been  accomplished,  —  unless,  indeed,  the  college  pre- 
paratory course  can  be  considered  the  best  preparation  for 
social  efficiency.  This  condition  has  been  no  more  the  fault 
of  the  college  and  the  university  than  of  those  who  have  in- 
sisted upon  a  different  curriculum,  but  who  in  the  past  have 
been  unable  to  evolve  one  definite  enough  to  be  workable  in 
many  of  the  thousands  of  high  schools  of  the  country.  How- 
ever, the  present  widespread  interest  in  vocational,  indus- 
trial, technical,  commercial,  and  economic  training,  and  the 
growing  interest  in  the  refinement  of  the  other  common  aspects 
of  life,  together  with  the  practical  experiments  now  going  on, 
give  a  renewed  promise  for  the  fruition  of  this  dream  of  a 
people's  college.  The  American  high  school,  then,  in  so  far 
as  it  is  efficient,  owes  this  efficiency  in  large  measure  to  the 
college  and  the  university. 

The  systematizing  of  any  series  of  schools  of  a  given  type 
means  their  unification  ;  and  this  can  be  secured  only  through 
the  operation  of  one  or  more  of  the  four  following  instrumen- 
talities :  similar  laws  governing  their  establishment,  main- 
tenance, and  support ;  like  curricula ;  supervision  and  in- 
spection ;  and  teachers  with  similar  ideals  and  training. 

Organization  of  Control.  —  The  most  prevalent  local  politi- 
cal unit  of  organization  for  the  establishment,  maintenance, 
control,  and  support  of  high  schools  in  the  United  States  is 
the  district,  which  includes  the  city  or  parts  of  the  city,  the 
town  or  small  city,  the  village,  the  rural  district,  or  a  union 
of  such  districts.  This  system  prevails  in  all  of  the  states 
in  so  far  as  it  applies  to  the  cities  and  larger  towns,  and  in 
some  states  it  is  the  only  unit  of  organization  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  schools.  In  most  instances  the  local  board 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     149 

of  school  directors  or  school  trustees,  which  also  has  charge 
of  the  local  lower  schools,  controls  these  schools. 

In  the  rural  districts  of  many  of  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
Western  states  the  township  unit  of  organization  prevails 
both  for  elementary  and  for  high  school  purposes.  In  cer- 
tain of  these  states  the  district  unit  of  organization  prevails 
for  elementary  school  purposes,  while  the  township  unit 
prevails  for  high  school  purposes.  In  most  of  them  there 
are  also  union  or  joint  township  high  schools  in  existence. 
The  boards  of  education  which  are  in  control  of  these  schools 
are  elected  by  the  people  of  the  territorial  districts  maintaining 
them.  In  some  of  the  Southern,  Western,  Rocky  Mountain, 
and  Pacific  Coast  states  many  county  high  schools  exist,  and 
in  at  least  a  few  cases  joint  county  high  schools.  These 
schools  are  always  under  the  control  either  of  the  county 
boards  of  education,  which  have  also  duties  relating  to  the 
elementary  schools,  or  of  special  county  or  joint  county  high 
school  boards.  In  a  few  states  these  boards  are  appointed  by 
the  county  courts,  in  others  by  the  county  commissioners 
or  supervisors,  and  in  the  remainder  of  the  cases  they  are 
elected  by  the  people. 

Rural  High  Schools.  — -  Since  in  general  the  towns  and 
villages  of  the  United  States  with  populations  to  exceed  2500 
are  able  to  maintain  reputable  high  schools,  and  since  they 
have  for  years  been  doing  so,  the  main  problem  of  rural 
secondary  education  has  to  do  mostly  with  that  part  of  the 
population  residing  in  the  smaller  villages  and  on  the  farms 
of  the  country.  The  units  of  organization  for  rural  high 
school  purposes  vary  widely  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
country  as  well  as  in  some  of  the  states  themselves,  the  small- 
est of  these  units  being  the  district.  These  district  high 
schools,  in  so  far  as  they  may  be  classed  as  rural,  have  largely 
grown  out  of  the  elementary  schools  through  the  gradual 
addition  of  high  school  subjects  and  high  school  grades. 
This  is  particularly  true  in  such  states  as  have  had  the  dis- 


150  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

trict  unit  of  organization  and  control  in  matters  of  education. 
In  every  state  where  the  unit  of  control  is  such,  and  where 
the  law  has  failed  to  define  the  public  school  as  a  strictly 
elementary  school,  rural  high  schools  have  grown  up  as  dis- 
trict schools.  The  union  of  districts  for  high  school  purposes 
is  also  an  outgrowth  of  the  gradual  extension  of  the  elementary 
school.  As  a  type  it  is  the  result  of  combining  two  or  more 
advanced  district  schools  that  had  already  developed  con- 
siderable high  school  work  in  connection  with  their  elementary 
courses.  The  township  unit  of  organization  is  more  prevalent 
than  the  district  unit,  in  so  far  as  the  term  applies  to  such 
rural  high  schools  as  have  state  recognition  as  such.  This  is 
a  perfectly  natural  condition,  since  in  most  of  the  older  and 
wealthier  states,  the  Eastern  and  Middle  Western  groups, 
the  township  constitutes  the  unit  of  taxation  and  organization 
for  public  school  as  well  as  other  civil  purposes.  The  method 
of  uniting  townships  into  high  school  districts  has  also  been 
employed  to  a  considerable  extent,  particularly  where  the 
townships  covered  a  small  area,  or  where  their  most  thickly 
populated  areas  were  adjacent.  The  county  plan  of  organiza- 
tion is  quite  largely  practiced  in  the  Western  and  in  certain 
of  the  Southern  states.  This  plan  of  organization  almost 
always  implies  large  local  support,  and  is  especially  adaptable 
to  thinly  populated  districts.  Village  and  town  districts 
sometimes  unite  with  their  counties  or  with  their  own  town- 
ships or  with  a  group  of  adjacent  townships  in  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  union  high  schools.  In  fact,  in  a 
large  number  of  the  states  any  combination  of  unit  areas  may 
organize  itself  into  a  high  school  district. 

Curriculum.  --  The  courses  of  study  in  the  rural  high  schools 
are  very  similar  to  those  of  the  city  high  schools  in  the  states 
wherein  they  are  located.  The  most  notable  difference  is 
that  they  offer  a  smaller  number  of  courses,  which  is  a  direct 
result  of  the  small  teaching  force  employed  and  of  the  small 
number  of  pupils  in  attendance.  Most  of  the  states,  recog- 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     151 

nizing  that  these  schools  are  at  least  in  theory  finishing  in- 
stitutions, have  required  one  course  of  instruction  other  than 
the  classical,  making  the  foreign  languages  elective,  if  offered 
at  all.  In  most  cases,  however,  these  schools  give  also  a 
college  preparatory  course,  including  at  least  one  foreign 
language,  usually  Latin,  though  the  modern  languages  are 
rapidly  gaining  ground. 

The  present  tendency  is  to  create  for  these  schools  courses 
of  a  more  practical  nature.  This  is  to  be  accomplished  by 
modifying  the  courses  and  instruction  in  the  sciences,  and 
adding  courses  in  agriculture,  stock  raising,  dairying,  horti- 
culture, and  other  practical  subjects,  as  demanded  by  the 
particular  school.  So  far  little  of  a  practical  nature  has  been 
accomplished  in  this  line.  In  fact,  in  regard  to  practical 
education,  the  cities  are  at  the  present  time  far  in  advance 
of  the  rural  districts.  Some  of  the  Middle  Western  states, 
such  as  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Nebraska,  have  made 
considerable  progress  in  this  line. 

Another  tendency  worthy  of  note  is  that  of  recognizing  and 
aiding  rural  high  schools  which  offer  only  a  partial  course  of 
study,  particularly  the  two-year  rural  and  small  village  high 
school.  Such  schools  are  becoming  common  in  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley,  though  as  yet  only  a  few  states  have  granted 
them  any  special  financial  encouragement.  California,  with 
its  two-year  "  Grammar-High  "  schools,  is  a  notable  exception 
in  this  particular. 

Statistical  Summary.  —  A  statistical  statement  of  the 
number  and  condition  of  the  strictly  rural  high  schools  in 
this  country  is  not  possible,  because,  as  pointed  out  above. 
the  statistics  of  rural  high  schools  proper  are  combined  with 
those  of  all  villages  and  towns  having  populations  that  do 
not  exceed  8000  inhabitants.  The  increase  in  the  number 
of  reputable  non-urban  high  schools  is  a  good  index  to  the 
vitality  of  the  institution  at  the  present  time. 

The  following  statistical  summary  is  based  on  an  extended 


152  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

study  of  twenty  states  selected  because  of  their  availability 
for  the  purpose.  These  were  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New 
Jersey,  California,  Colorado,  Washington,  Connecticut,  Ver- 
mont, New  Hampshire,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Texas,  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska.  The  high  school  and  other  necessary  statistics 
for  these  states  for  the  nine  years  ending  1906  were  compiled, 
and  interpreted  with  the  following  general  results  : 

(i)  The  average  increase  in  the  number  of  rural1  high  schools 
in  the  twenty  states  was,  for  the  nine-year  period,  50  per  cent. 
(2)  The  average  relative  2  increase  in  the  enrollment  of  pupils 
in  the  urban  3  high  schools  of  the  twenty  states  was,  for  the 
nine  years,  46  per  cent,  while  for  the  non-urban x  high  schools 
it  was,  for  the  same  period,  65  per  cent.  (3)  The  average  in- 
crease to  the  school  in  the  number  of  teachers  employed  in 
non-urban  high  schools  was,  for  the  nine  years,  more  than 
19  per  cent.  (4)  The  average  decrease  in  the  relative  number 
of  one-teacher  high  schools  was,  for  the  nine  years,  more  than 
1 1  per  cent.  (5)  The  average  decrease  in  the  relative  number 
of  two-teacher  high  schools  was,  for  the  nine  years,  more  than 
33  per  cent. 

The  general  methods  employed  by  different  states  in  ex- 
tending financial  aid  to  rural  secondary  education  are  varied, 
and  are  discussed  in  the  following  section. 

The  influence  of  this  aid  upon  the  rural  high  schools  of 
these  states  is  clearly  shown  by  the  following  comparison  of 
the  average  development  of  rural  secondary  education  during 
a  period  of  nine  years,  1897-1906,  in  six  states,  Minnesota, 
California,  Massachusetts,  Washington,  Wisconsin,  and  Maine, 
—  all  of  which  provided  state  subsidies  to  rural  high  schools 
and  two  of  which  also  provided  for  the  reimbursement  of 

1  All  high  schools  not  located  in  cities  with  a  population  exceeding   8000 
inhabitants. 

2  Enrollment  for  each  year  compared  with  census,  five  to  eighteen  years. 

3  High  schools  in  cities  with  8000  or  more  inhabitants. 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     153 

tuitions,  —  with  the  average  development  of  rural  secondary 
education  during  the  same  period  in  eleven  states,  Nebraska, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Colorado,  Michigan,  Illinois,  New 
Jersey,  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  Texas,  none  of  which  provided 
direct  state  aid  to  secondary  education  in  any  manner  what- 
ever. The  results  were  as  follows : 

(i)  The  average  increase  in  the  number  of  non-urban  high 
schools  was,  for  the  six  states,  68  per  cent,  for  the  eleven 
states,  48  per  cent.  (2)  The  average  increase  in  the  number 
of  teachers  employed  to  the  school  in  non-urban  districts 
was,  for  the  six  states,  38  per  cent,  reckoned  on  an  average 
status  of  2.4  teachers  to  the  school  in  1897  ;  for  the  eleven 
states  6.5  per  cent,  reckoned  upon  an  average  status  of  2.5 
teachers  to  the  school  in  1897.  (3)  During  these  nine  years 
the  average  relative  proportion  (.25)  of  one-teacher  high 
schools  in  the  six  states  was  reduced  63  per  cent ;  in  the 
eleven  states  the  average  relative  proportion  (.27)  was  in- 
creased 15  per  cent.  (4)  During  the  same  period  the  average 
relative  proportion  (.52)  of  two-teacher  high  schools  in  the 
six  states  was  reduced  53  per  cent,  while  in  the  eleven  states 
the  average  relative  proportion  (.44)  was  increased  2  per  cent. 
(5)  The  average  status  of  enrollment  of  pupils  in  all  types  of 
secondary  schools,  4.44  individuals  to  each  100  of  census  (5- 
18),  in  the  six  states  in  1897  was  increased  during  the  nine 
years  57  per  cent,  while  in  the  eleven  states  the  average  status 
of  enrollment,  3.68  individuals  to  each  100  of  census  (5-18), 
was  increased  but  39  per  cent.  (6)  The  average  status  of 
enrollment  of  pupils  in  city  high  schools,  4.81  individuals  to 
each  100  of  census  (5-18),  in  the  six  states  in  1897,  was  in- 
creased during  the  nine  years  52  per  cent,  while  in  the  eleven 
states  the  average  status  of  enrollment,  4.13  individuals  to 
each  one  hundred  of  census  (5-18),  was  increased  49  per  cent. 
(7)  The  average  status  of  enrollment  of  pupils  in  non-urban 
high  schools,  2.85  individuals  to  each  100  of  census  (5-18), 
in  the  six  states  in  1897  was  increased  during  the  nine  years 


154  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

100  per  cent,  while  in  the  eleven  states  the  average  status  of 
enrollment,  2.49  individuals  to  each  100  of  census  (5-18),  was 
increased  49  per  cent. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  rapidly  developing  standard  of 
rural  secondary  education  in  the  states  that  provide  special 
financial  aid  is  slowly  approaching  the  increasing  standard  of 
the  same  in  the  cities  of  these  states.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
appears  that  the  rapidly  increasing  standard  of  rural  second- 
ary education  in  the  states  that  offer  no  special  aid  is  slowly 
diverging  from  the  constantly  increasing  standard  of  the  same 
in  the  cities  of  these  states.  On  the  whole  the  general  in- 
crease of  standard  of  urban  as  well  as  non-urban  secondary 
education  has  been  very  rapid  in  recent  years. 

MAINTENANCE  AND  SUPPORT.  — It  is  only  within  recent 
years  that  any  real  attempt  to  aid  in  the  maintenance  of  sec- 
ondary schools  has  been  made  by  the  states  or  counties,  and  the 
giving  of  such  aid,  though  becoming  more  common  each  year, 
is  still  not  a  general  feature  of  our  state  school  systems.  In 
some  states  no  distinctions  are  made  between  common  or 
elementary  schools  and  high  or  secondary  schools,  either  in 
statistics  or  in  finance.  Communities  which  maintain  second- 
ary schools  are  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  communities 
that  do  not,  with  the  result  that  the  maintenance  of  a  high 
school  is  purely  a  local  burden.  Secondary  education  is, 
comparatively  speaking,  so  recent  an  undertaking  that  most 
states  have  not  as  yet  made  any  definite  provision  for  the 
equalization  of  its  advantages.  These  schools,  however,  have 
recently  grown  greatly  in  popular  favor,  due  in  part  to  the 
need  of  increased  education  to  meet  the  changed  conditions 
of  life,  to  the  introduction  of  new  studies  and  methods  of 
instruction,  and  to  the  changed  conception  of  the  purpose 
of  secondary  instruction.  The  result  is  that  the  high  school 
is  destined  soon  to  be  a  regular  and  a  necessary  part  of  our 
systems  of  public  instruction  and  that  high  school  facilities 
will  be  provided  for  all.  This  change  in  attitude  is  certain 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     155 

to  add  force  to  the  demand  for  some  form  of  general  aid  for 
secondary,  as  well  as  for  elementary,  instruction.  The  main- 
tenance of  elementary  schools  and  a  state  university,  and  the 
refusal  to  help  in  the  maintenance  of  secondary  schools,  is 
not  a  logical  position  for  a  state  to  assume. 

The  expense  of  maintaining  secondary  schools  is  so  much 
greater  than  that  for  elementary  schools,  due  to  the  need  of 
better  trained  and  more  expensive  teachers,  smaller  classes, 
the  smaller  number  enrolled,  and  more  expensive  teaching 
equipment,  that  the  need  of  some  general  aid  is  apparent,  if 
they  are  to  be  developed  at  all  generally.  This  is  accentuated 
by  the  fact  that  the  cost  for  elementary  schools  is  also  in- 
creasing, and  that  the  money  now  at  hand  and  originally  in- 
tended for  the  support  of  elementary  schools  alone  is  rapidly 
proving  insufficient  for  the  support  of  both  classes  of  schools. 
Many  communities  are  at  present  trying  to  support  a  full 
twelve-year  school  system  with  funds  hardly  sufficient  to 
maintain  the  elementary  schools  properly. 

Such  provision  as  has  been  made  by  the  different  states 
extends  from  mere  permission  to  communities  to  form  such 
schools  and  to  tax  themselves  to  pay  for  them,  —  which  is 
analogous  to  the  first  legislative  permission  to  the  people  of 
a  community  to  organize  a  taxing  district  and  tax  every  one 
for  the  support  of  an  elementary  school,  —  to  a  general  state 
tax  levied  for  the  support  of  secondary  education  and  appor- 
tioned and  used  for  that  purpose  alone.  The  first  is  the  mere 
beginning  and  the  second  is  the  culmination  of  the  process, 
and  between  the  two  are  many  intermediate  plans  for  the 
granting  of  some  degree  of  aid  to  secondary  schools. 

Stages  in  Development.  —  Mere  permission  to  cities,  towns, 
districts,  and  unions  of  districts  to  form  a  high  school  and  to 
tax  themselves  to  pay  for  it  must  be  regarded  as  the  first 
step  in  the  process  of  the  evolution  of  a  system  of  general 
aid  to  secondary  education.  A  petition  and  an  election  are 
the  usual  preliminary  steps,  and  after  the  formation  of  the 


156  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

high  school  district  an  annual  local  tax,  frequently  of  a  limited 
amount,  is  permitted  for  the  support  of  the  school.  Some- 
times such  schools  are  under  the  control  of  a  separate  school 
board,  known  as  a  high  school  board,  and  sometimes  the  board 
which  has  control  of  the  elementary  schools  merely  takes 
charge  of  the  high  school  also.  A  number  of  states  have 
taken  this  first  step,  but  have  not  gone  further.  The  next 
step  is  found  where  the  principle  of  local  support  is  re- 
tained, but  the  taxing  is  extended  to  a  larger  area,  as  to  the 
county  as  a  whole.  In  states  which  have  taken  this  step, 
common  in  the  West,  we  find  the  county  high  school.  The 
common  features  of  these  permissive  high  school  laws  are 
the  necessity  of  a  petition  asking  for  the  submission  of  the 
question  of  the  formation  of  a  county  high  school  to  a  vote 
of  the  people,  a  special  election  to  decide  the  question,  the 
appointment  or  election  of  a  board  of  trustees  for  the  school, 
an  annual  county  tax  for  support,  free  tuition  in  the  school 
to  all  residents  of  the  county,  and  usually  provision  for  the 
dissolution  of  the  school,  after  a  time,  if  desired,  by  vote  of 
the  people.  With  the  formation  of  a  second  county  high 
school  at  some  other  place,  or  with  the  segregation  of  a  cer- 
tain district  or  districts  to  form  a  local  high  school  separate 
from  the  county  high  school,  the  process  of  subdivision  of 
the  high  school  district  has  begun. 

The  next  step  in  granting  aid  to  high  schools  is  taken  when 
the  state  begins  to  make  a  series  of  grants,  or  subsidies,  to  aid 
secondary  schools.  A  number  of  states  have  taken  this  step, 
though  the  plan  has  been  worked  out  but  poorly  in  most  of 
the  states.  The  granting  of  such  aid  naturally  stimulates 
the  development  of  high  schools,  and  if  the  appropriation  to 
pay  the  grants  or  subsidies  is  not  of  a  flexible  form,  and  one 
that  increases  with  the  growth  of  the  schools,  the  result  will 
be  a  failure  to  provide  the  aid  intended.  Where  a  definite 
legislative  appropriation  has  to  be  made  to  pay  the  grant, 
as  in  a  number  of  the  states,  the  appropriation  is  likely  to  fail 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States      157 

to  increase  as  fast  as  the  schools  do,  and  the  result  is  a  forced 
scaling  down  of  the  grant.  In  Minnesota,  for  example,  the 
state  aid  determined  upon  was  $1000  to  each  properly  ap- 
proved school,  but  the  schools  increased  so  much  faster  than 
did  the  appropriation  that  the  grants  were  scaled  lower  and 
lower  for  a  number  of  years.  The  same  thing  happened  in 
Pennsylvania.  This  gives  an  uncertainty  to  the  value  of  the 
grant  which  makes  the  method  less  desirable  than  other  plans 
that  can  be  devised.  The  method,  also,  places  all  of  the 
premium  on  the  mere  existence  of  the  school,  but  none  on 
the  employment  of  a  sufficient  number  of  teachers  to  do  the 
work  properly,  or  on  the  addition  of  such  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion as  will  make  the  school  of  greater  worth.  A  school  with 
only  a  single  "  classical  course  "  stands  on  the  same  footing, 
so  far  as  state  aid  is  concerned,  with  another  school  which 
employs  relatively  more  teachers  and  offers  two  or  three 
courses  of  instruction.  The  second  school  will  cost  mucji 
more  per  capita  to  maintain,  assuming  that  the  t\vo  are 
located  in  somewhat  the  same  kind  of  communities,  and  will 
attract  more  students  and  will  render  a  much  larger  educa- 
tional service,  but  under  the  lump  subsidy  plan  of  aid  it  will 
receive  no  greater  reward  than  the  smaller  and  poorer  school. 
If  it  is  worth  while  to  aid  secondary  education  at  all,  then 
the  state  ought  so  to  apportion  its  aid  as  to  place  a  premium 
on  the  giving  of  instruction  under  good  educational  conditions. 
The  subsidy  method  places  no  premium  on  growth  or  better 
instruction,  and  makes  the  position  of  the  state  as  to  the  im- 
provement of  existing  conditions  a  purely  negative  one.  The 
subsidy  method  marks  the  beginnings  of  state  aid,  and  ought 
to  be  abandoned  as  soon  as  possible  for  a  better  form  of 
assistance.  If  the  subsidy  plan  is  to  be  used,  it  ought  to  be 
graded  both  as  to  years  and  character  of  instruction  offered, 
and  the  power  to  grant,  scale  down,  or  withhold  the  grant 
ought  to  be  centralized  in  some  responsible  educational  body 
possessing  powers  of  inspection.  The  one  marked  merit  of 


158  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  subsidy  plan,  where  graded  subsidies  are  employed  based 
on  the  number  of  years  of  instruction  offered,  is  that  it  places 
a  premium  on  the  development  of  two-year  and  three-year 
high  schools,  as  well  as  four-year  schools.  Any  good  instruc- 
tion beyond  the  grammar  school,  even  if  for  only  one  year 
and  given  to  only  a  few  pupils,  is  a  stimulating  influence 
which  reacts  most  favorably  on  all  lower  instruction.  Two- 
year  high  schools  frequently  develop  into  four-year  high 
schools,  and  communities  are  usually  able  to  provide  two  years 
of  instruction  before  they  would  be  able  to  provide  a  fully 
equipped  four-year  high  school. 

Types  of  Highest  Development.  —  California  and  New 
Jersey  stand  as  examples  of  states  which  have  reached  the 
culmination  of  the  process.  In  both  states  the  high  school 
has  been  adopted  as  a  part  of  the  state  school  system,  though 
by  a  somewhat  different  method  in  each.  In  California  the 
complete  adoption  of  the  high  school  has  come  through  the 
provision  of  separate  and  special  taxation  for  the  support  of 
high  schools  and  by  a  constitutional  provision  that  the  in- 
come from  the  state  school  fund,  and  the  proceeds  of  all 
previous  taxation,  can  be  used  only  for  the  support  of  ele- 
mentary schools.  This  forever  prevents  the  robbing  of  the 
elementary  schools  to  maintain  high  schools,  a  process  which 
goes  on  in  many  of  our  states.  For  the  support  of  the  high 
schools  of  the  state  a  special  state  tax  for  high  schools  is  levied 
and  apportioned.  To  keep  the  income  for  this  purpose  con- 
stantly up  to  the  needs  of  the  schools,  it  has  been  provided 
that  the  tax  to  be  levied  shall  be  determined  annually  by 
multiplying  the  number  of  high  school  pupils  in  average  daily 
attendance  in  the  state  the  preceding  year  by  815,  which  re- 
quires a  state  tax  of  approximately  i\  mills.  This  is  then 
apportioned  to  all  approved  high  schools  in  the  state  on  the 
following  basis :  one  third  equally  to  all  schools,  regardless 
of  size,  and  two  thirds  to  all  schools  on  the  basis  of  aver- 
age daily  attendance.  The  apportionment  plan  could  be  im- 


Hig/i  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     159 

proved  still  further  by  making  a  partial  apportionment  on 
the  basis  of  the  number  of  teachers  actually  employed. 
Length  of  term  is  here  a  negligible  factor,  because  all  schools 
are  required  to  maintain  a  term  of  at  least  180  days  to  receive 
any  aid.  New  Jersey  offers  an  example  of  the  complete  in- 
corporation of  secondary  education  into  the  state  school 
system.  Here  the  apportionment  of  school  funds  is  made 
to  high  schools  as  to  elementary  schools,  on  the  teacher  basis, 
viz.  $400  for  every  teacher  actually  employed  in  each  high 
school,  and  the  remainder  on  a  basis  of  so  much  per  pupil  per 
day  in  actual  attendance,  in  all  kinds  of  schools.  The  ap- 
portionment of  state  aid  to  a  high  school  is  thus  made  on  a 
plan  similar  to  a  kindergarten,  primary  school,  or  grammar 
school.  All  belong  to  the  same  state  school  system,  all  share 
in  the  apportionment  of  funds,  and  all  are  paid  out  of  a  com- 
mon fund.  The  value  of  such  a  plan,  if  sufficient  revenue 
can  be  obtained,  is  at  once  evident.  High  schools  cease  to 
be  a  separate  part  of  the  school  system,  and  become  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  system  of  public  instruction.  The  state 
then  rewards  a  community's  efforts  according  to  the  amount 
of  instruction  provided,  as  measured  by  the  number  of  teachers 
employed,  and  according  to  the  actual  amount  of  work  done, 
as  measured  by  the  attendance  upon  the  instruction  offered. 
If  a  rural  union  school  will  provide  only  the  ninth-grade  work, 
and  thus  give  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  rural  districts  a  taste 
of  something  beyond  the  common  school  branches,  the  state 
will  reward  such  an  effort  by  a  grant  for  both  the  teacher 
employed  and  the  extra  attendance  resulting.  If  a  village 
will  employ  one  additional  teacher  and  provide  two  years  of 
high  school  instruction,  the  state  will  similarly  reward  such 
effort.  To  the  large  city  school  the  state  offers  a  similar 
standing  premium  on  additional  effort,  every  new  teacher 
and  line  of  work  added  receiving  additional  aid.  The  sim- 
plicity, justice,  and  automatic  adjustment  of  the  plan  to  com- 
munity needs  and  efforts  are  strong  points  in  its  favor.  One 


160          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

thing,  though,  which  ought  always  to  accompany  such  a 
complete  incorporation  of  the  high  schools  into  the  public 
school  system,  is  a  proportional  increase  of  available  funds, 
with  provision  for  an  automatic  increase.  There  is  no  wis- 
dom in  incorporating  high  schools  into  the  state  school  system 
if  the  elementary  schools  are  to  be  made  to  pay  the  bills. 

Basis  of  Apportionment.  —  Such  an  incorporation  of  high 
schools  into  the  system  of  public  instruction  is  not  possible 
if  the  census  basis  of  apportionment  is  used.  The  essential 
unit  in  higher,  as  in  elementary,  instruction,  is  the  teacher 
who  must  be  employed  to  teach  the  pupils,  and  not  the  num- 
ber of  pupils  alone.  Under  a  combination  of  teachers-actually- 
employed  and  attendance  bases,  as  used  in  New  Jersey,  the 
high  school  is  placed  on  the  same  basis  as  any  other  school, 
and  thus  becomes  an  integral  part  of  the  system  of  public 
instruction.  The  California  and  the  New  Jersey  plans  are 
the  best  that  have  been  evolved  for  the  support  and  incor- 
poration of  high  schools.  The  California  plan  is  especially 
meritorious  in  that  it  provides  a  separate  and  a  large  fund  for 
aid  to  secondary  education,  and  the  New  Jersey  plan  is  es- 
pecially commendable  in  that  it  establishes  one  organization. 
In  view  of  the  possibility  of  a  reorganization  of  the  plans  for 
upper  grammar  grade  and  high  school  instruction  this  must 
be  considered  an  important  gain.  If  in  the  future  a  six-year 
high  school  should  prove  to  be  a  desirable  addition  to  our 
school  work,  the  present  somewhat  rigid  classification  in 
some  states  would  stand  in  the  way. 

Another  form  of  support  for  high  schools  comes  in  the  at- 
tempt to  abolish  tuition  fees  for  those  children  who  do  not 
happen  to  live  in  high  school  districts.  Children  who  live  in 
cities,  towns,  or  districts  which  maintain  high  schools  of 
course  have  free  high  school  tuition,  but  children  who  live  in 
adjoining  districts  which  are  not  a  part  of  some  high  school 
district  are  almost  invariably  forced  to  pay  a  tuition  charge, 
and  this  is  frequently  made  very  high  for  the  purpose  of  re- 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     161 

during  the  attendance  of  such  outside  pupils.  The  unfair- 
ness of  such  tuition  charges  is  at  once  evident,  and  a  number 
of  states  have  attempted  to  do  away  with  them.  The  method 
employed  in  doing  so  varies  in  different  states.  In  Indiana 
the  pupil  applies  in  person  for  a  transfer,  which,  if  granted, 
carries  with  it  the  payment  of  fees ;  in  Ohio  the  township 
from  which  the  pupil  comes  is  directed  to  assume  the  fees; 
in  Wisconsin  a  bill  is  presented  by  the  school  receiving  the 
pupil  to  the  district  from  which  he  comes,  and  then  a  tax  is 
levied  to  pay  the  bill ;  in  Massachusetts  the  town  in  which 
the  pupil  resides  must  pay  the  tuition  charge,  unless  it  is  one 
of  a  class  of  poorer  and  smaller  towns,  in  which  case  the  state 
pays  the  bill ;  and  in  Connecticut  the  state  reimburses  towns 
for  two  thirds  of  the  tuition  paid,  and  will  also  pay  one  half 
of  the  cost  of  transportation.  In  ^California  a  very  simple 
and  very  effective  method  has  recently  been  worked  out, 
whereby  every  child  in  the  state  has  free  high  school  privileges. 
The  county  superintendent  of  schools  of  each  county  is  re- 
quired to  estimate  annually  the  number  of  probable  high  school 
pupils  for  the  coming  year  who  live  in  non-high-school  terri- 
tory, and  then  to  have  levied  by  the  county  authorities  a 
county  high-school-tuition  tax  sufficient  to  pay  the  tuition 
charge  of  all  non-high-school  district  pupils  in  the  nearest  or 
most  convenient  high  school.  As  the  state  pays  the  high 
schools  for  all  pupils  in  average  daily  attendance,  this  includes 
state  aid  to  all.  It  remains  purely  optional  with  a  district  now 
whether  it  will  form  a  high  school  of  its  own,  join  a  high  school 
district  already  in  existence,  or  pay  its  tax  for  the  tuition  of 
non-high-school  pupils.  In  any  case  the  cost  is  paid  by  general 
taxation,  levied  on  all  property  for  high  school  purposes. 
THE  INSPECTION  AND  ACCREDITING  OF  SCHOOLS. 
-  This  phase  of  high  school  administration  is  primarily  one  of 
relationship  between  the  secondary  schools  and  the  colleges, 
and  has  to  do  chiefly  with  methods  of  transferring  students 
from  high  school  to  college. 


1 62  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Considered  historically  and  broadly  there  are  found  in  the 
United  States  but  two  methods  of  admission  to  college : 
(a)  personal  examination  of  the  applicant,  —  the  Eastern 
method ;  (6)  accrediting  of  the  fitting  school,  —  the  Western 
method. 

The  examination  method  is  the  older;  but  originally  this 
was  a  purely  personal  affair  between  the  applicant  and  the 
college  teacher.  The  "  examination,"  quite  informal  and 
usually  oral,  was  designed  only  incidentally  to  test  the  boy's 
knowledge,  but  mainly  to  acquaint  the  college  teacher  with 
his  prospective  student's  tastes,  habits,  and  antecedents. 

However,  as  the  number  of  applicants  increased,  this  in- 
formal, individual  method  became  unwieldy,  and  was  finally 
superseded  by  formal,  written  examinations,  set  by  the  college. 
Thus  by  and  within  this  method  the  valuable  element  of 
personal  contact  between  college  teacher  and  would-be  stu- 
dent was  wholly  lost. 

Further,  in  the  North  Atlantic  states,  where  the  examina- 
tion method  began  and  found  its  fullest  development,  schools 
and  colleges  were  mainly  private  institutions,  without  any 
feeling  of  institutional  relationship,  without  the  sense  of 
coherency  and  solidarity  of  a  common  educational  pur- 
pose. As  for  educational  system  —  there  was  none.  Each 
college  was  a  law  unto  itself ;  independent  and  answerable 
to  none,  it  determined  and  defined  its  own  entrance  require- 
ments and  held  its  own  entrance  examinations  upon  its  own 
premises ;  while  the  schools  knew  no  law  except  that  which 
was  laid  upon  them  by  the  colleges.  Too  frequently  this 
law  had  little  reference  to  the  proper  problems  of  secondary 
education.  The  term  "  atomistic "  best  describes  such  an 
educational  condition. 

While  this  condition  of  individualism  continued  with  lit- 
tle change  until  very  recent  times,  one  modification  may  be 
noted.  Some  of  the  larger  eastern  colleges,  which  draw 
students  from  a  wide  area,  have  come,  in  recent  times,  to 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     163 

hold  their  examinations  at  various  geographical  centers,  thus 
relieving  somewhat  the  hardship  incident  to  long  trips  with 
uncertain  results. 

The  latest  and  only  important  development  of  the  examina- 
tion system  is  the  establishment  of  an  examination  board. 
Such  a  board,  called  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board 
of  the  Middle  states  and  Maryland,  was  organized  in  New 
York  City  in  1901.  The  organizers  were  representatives  from 
certain  leading  colleges  and  secondary  schools  of  the  Middle 
Atlantic  states.  The  chief  purposes  of  the  Board  were  :  (a)  to 
hold  at  many  points,  here  and  abroad,  uniform  college  entrance 
examinations,  the  constituent  colleges  agreeing  to  discon- 
tinue their  own  examinations  and  accept  the  Board's  results ; 
(b)  to  define  and  standardize  the  college  entrance  "  units  "  in 
the  different  subjects. 

The  plan  was  welcomed  by  both  schools  and  colleges,  es- 
pecially in  the  East,  as  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  old 
methods ;  and  the  operations  of  the  Board  have  within  the 
decade  of  its  existence  greatly  extended.  Its  examinations 
are  now  held  in  practically  all  civilized  countries,  and  the 
results  are  accepted  by  every  college  and  university  in  the 
United  States. 

We  come  now  to  consider  the  "  Western  "  system,  which 
is,  instead,  essentially  an  examination  of  the  school.  This  is 
commonly  called  the  certification  or  accrediting  of  schools. 
Stated  broadly,  according  to  this  method  the  college,  having 
in  some  way  satisfied  itself  as  to  the  quality  of  the  work  done 
in  the  school,  agrees  to  accept,  in  lieu  of  examinations,  a  state- 
ment from  the  school  to  the  effect  that  the  applicant  has  done 
the  required  work  satisfactorily  and  is  qualified  to  do  college 
work. 

The  theoretic  justification  of  each  system,  in  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  fitness  for  admission  to  college,  is  as  follows  :  (a)  The 
college  is  the  best  judge  of  what  constitutes  fitness  to  enter 
college,  and  examination  is  the  best  test  of  fitness,  (b)  The 


164  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

teacher,  knowing  both  the  boy  and  his  work  and  the  college 
requirements  as  well,  is  the  best  judge. 

The  merits  of  these  two  positions  cannot  be  discussed  here, 
for,  in  its  origin  at  least,  the  accrediting  system  had  a  deeper 
justification.  It  came  naturally  with  the  recognition  of  the 
solidarity  of  a  state  educational  system  wherein  all  members 
have  a  unity  of  purpose  and  of  which  the  state  university  is 
the  natural  head.  While  this  condition  was  characteristic 
of  the  West  generally,  it  reached  its  earliest  practical  recog- 
nition in  Michigan.  In  the  annual  catalogue  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan  for  1870-1871  appeared  a  "  Special  Notice 
to  Preparatory  Schools,"  whereby  the  faculty  agreed  that, 
under  certain  conditions,  the  holder  of  a  diploma  of  graduation 
from  a  school  might  be  admitted  to  the  University  without 
examination. 

Chief  among  the  conditions,  as  modified  by  the  experience 
of  a  few  years,  were  in  substance  the  following : 

(i)  The  work  of  the  school  must  be  inspected  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  university  faculty  and  favorably  reported ; 

(2)  Accrediting  was    granted    for  but  one  year  at  a  time ; 

(3)  Applicant    must    present  to   the  university  diploma  of 
graduation  from  the  school;   (4)  The  school  must  apply  to 
the  university  yearly  for  the  accrediting;    (5)  Only   public 
high  schools  within  the  state  were  accredited. 

Here  we  find  those  principles  clearly  recognized  which  are 
characteristic  of  the  Western  plan  and  in  contrast  with  the 
Eastern  :  (a)  that  there  is  an  organic  relationship  between 
the  different  parts  of  the  state  educational  system ;  (b)  that 
examination  should  be  not  of  the  candidate  but  of  the  school ; 
(c)  that  the  teacher  is  the  best  judge  of  what  his  pupil  is,  of 
what  he  knows,  and  of  what  he  can,  and  probably  will,  do  in 
college. 

The  theoretic  reasonableness  and  the  practical  efficiency  of 
the  Michigan  plan,  as  it  soon  came  to  be  called,  appealed  to 
the  West,  which,  being  less  hampered  than  the  East  by  edu- 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     165 

cational  tradition,  was  freer  to  try  out  educational  innova- 
tions. So,  as  the  states  developed,  the  essential  features  of 
the  accrediting  system,  with  individual  state  modilications, 
were  adopted  by  practically  every  state  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 
While  in  a  few  cases  the  state  department  of  education  under- 
took the  accrediting  of  schools,  as  a  rule  that  function  was  as- 
sumed by  the  state  university,  as  in  Michigan. 

In  those  states  where  the  original  plan  was  most  fully  and 
typically  carried  out,  e.g.  in  Michigan  and  in  California,  the 
examination  of  the  schools,  which  was  the  most  essential 
feature  of  the  plan,  was  one  of  subject  in  the  high  school 
and  by  corresponding  departments  of  the  university.  Repre- 
sentatives —  preferably  heads  —  of  the  various  university 
departments  of  instruction  visited  and  inspected  yearly  the 
corresponding  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  schools.  Thus  a 
school  might  be  accredited  in  some  subjects  and  not  in  others. 

So  long  as  the  schools  of  a  state  were  few  and  small,  with 
narrow  curricula,  this  plan  was  usually  effectively  carried 
out.  But  in  time  difficulties  arose.  The  first  was  of  ad- 
ministration from  the  university  side.  With  the  enormous 
growth  of  the  high  schools  of  the  past  two  decades  in  numbers, 
size,  and  complexity  of  curricula,  this  feature  of  the  plan 
grew  more  and  more  unwieldy,  difficult  of  execution,  and 
finally  impracticable.  Not  enough  experienced  men  could 
be  spared  from  the  various  university  departments  to  do  the 
work ;  so  younger  men,  often  unacquainted  with  secondary 
school  work,  were  sent ;  later,  even  these  could  not  be  spared 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  cover  the  field.  Finally  the  cost, 
which  was  borne  by  the  university-  became  well-nigh  pro- 
hibitive. In  1905  one  state  university  was  expending  in  the 
work  over  $10,000  per  year  and  even  then  was  not  able  to 
cover  the  field  adequately. 

The  second  arose  in  the  attitude  of  the  schools ;  for  the 
schools,  which  at  first  had  warmly  welcomed  the  accrediting 
system  and  had  been  tremendously  benefited  by  university 


1 66  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

cooperation,  came  in  time  to  feel  the  hand  of  the  university 
heavy  upon  them  and  to  chafe  under  it.  And  they  had 
reason.  For  with  the  changed  conditions  sketched  above, 
injustice  was  frequently  —  however  unintentionally  —  done 
to  teacher,  pupil,  and  school.  Moreover,  with  the  rapid  ex- 
pansion of  the  high  schools,  the  conviction  gained  ground 
that  the  larger  purpose  was  to  fit  the  many  for  life  rather 
than  the  few  for  college ;  that  the  secondary  school  should 
be  considered  as  a  whole  as  an  institution  with  its  own  true 
ends,  rather  than  as  a  loose  aggregation  of  unrelated  subjects 
of  instruction  leading  to  college  admission.  So  there  were 
sent  to  the  schools  fewer  departmental  specialists  and  these 
less  frequently ;  the  minute  yearly  inspection  of  each  subject 
was  given  up,  and  the  university  came  gradually  to  recognize 
the  school  as  an  autonomy,  to  be  judged  rightly  only  as  a 
whole. 

The  next  step  was  a  logical  one.  Instead  of  the  numerous 
departmental  specialists  of  former  years,  the  university  ap- 
pointed one  general  examiner,  who  usually  became  a  member 
of  the  university  department  of  education.  Generally  he 
was  to  spend  one  part  of  the  school  year  in  university  instruc- 
tion and  the  other  in  visiting  the  schools.  Officially  he  was 
expected  to  view  the  school  as  a  whole,  to  note  in  how  far  it 
measured  up  to  recognized  standards  of  modern  secondary 
school  efficiency.  Upon  his  report,  as  a  rule,  the  school  was 
accredited,  if  at  all,  as  a  whole  and  not  by  individual  subjects 
as  heretofore.  Such  an  accredited  school  was  permitted  to 
enter  its  graduates  at  the  university  without  examination  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  principal  and  a  statement  that 
the  applicant  had  satisfactorily  completed  the  entrance  re- 
quirements. 

As  conducive  to  more  intelligent  cooperation  between  the 
schools  and  the  universities,  some  of  the  latter  kept  a  detailed 
scholarship  record  of  the  work  done  in  the  university  by  the 
freshmen  entering;  from  each  school.  These  records  were 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     167 

sent  to  the  principals  of  the  corresponding  schools  at  the  close 
of  the  first  semester,  and  were  also  used  as  additional  data 
for  determining  the  right  of  the  school  to  be  accredited  the 
following  year. 

So  far  we  have  sketched,  by  sample,  the  development  of 
the  accrediting  system  of  the  West.  In  some  states,  especially 
in  the  far  West,  the  standards  set  by  the  state  university 
have  been  generally  accepted  by  the  private  colleges  of  the 
state ;  but  in  the  states  of  the  Middle  West  this  has  not  been 
so  generally  true.  In  many  of  these  states  there  are  important 
private  colleges  and  universities,  and  the  educational  leader- 
ship of  the  state  universities  has  not  been  so  unquestioned. 
Under  these  circumstances,  each  of  the  more  important  in- 
stitutions has  sought  to  maintain  its  own  admission  require- 
ments and  its  own  accrediting  system.  This  has  resulted 
in  vast  waste  through  duplication  of  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  colleges,  and  much  needless  annoyance  on  the  part  of 
the  schools.  In  such  cases  we  find,  though  to  a  less  degree, 
an  educational  atomism  akin  to  that  of  the  East. 

To  render  the  accrediting  system  more  widely  effective 
there  was  need  of  an  organization  which  would  act  as  a  clear- 
ing house,  and  do  for  many  states  and  for  all  colleges  within 
those  states  what  many  of  the  individual  states  were  already 
doing  effectively  for  their  own  territory. 

An  organization  writh  such  an  end  in  view  came  into  existence 
in  1901  when  the  North  Central  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Secondary  Schools  formed  a  "  Commission  of  Accredited 
Schools."  Its  chief  purposes  were:  (i)  to  define  and 
describe  "  unit  "  high  school  courses  of  study  in  the  different 
subjects ;  (2)  to  serve  as  a  standing  committee  on  uniform 
college  admission  requirements;  (3)  to  secure  uniformity  in 
the  standards  and  methods,  and  economy  of  labor  and  expense 
in  the  work  of  high  school  inspection  ;  (4)  to  prepare  and 
publish  a  list  of  accredited  schools. 

In  its  first  report,  issued  in  1902,  the  General  Commission 


1 68  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

made  certain  recommendations.  The  important  ones,  as 
slightly  modified  later,  stand  now  as  follows:  (i)  "A  unit 
course  of  study  in  a  secondary  school  is  defined  as  a  course 
covering  an  academic  year  that  shall  include  in  the  aggregate 
not  less  than  the  equivalent  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
sixty-minute  hours  of  classroom  work,  two  hours  of  manual 
training  or  laboratory  work  being  equivalent  to  an  hour  of 
classroom  work."  (2)  High  school  graduation  and  college 
admission  would  include  fifteen  units  so  defined.  (3)  All 
high  school  curricula  and  all  requirements  for  college  en- 
trance should  include  three  units  of  English  and  two  units  of 
mathematics. 

The  subcommittee  on  high  school  inspection  recommended 
the  following  criteria  by  which  accrediting  should  be  deter- 
mined, the  length  of  the  accrediting  term  being  one  year : 
(i)  The  minimum  scholastic  attainments  of  all  high  school 
teachers  shall  be  the  equivalent  of  graduation  from  a  college 
belonging  to  the  North  Central  Association,  including  special 
training  in  the  subjects  they  teach.  (2)  No  teacher  shall 
have  more  than  five  daily  recitations  of  forty-five  minutes 
each.  (3)  The  school  shall  have  adequate  laboratory  and 
library  facilities  for  handling  properly  the  subjects  taught. 
(4)  The  location,  construction,  and  sanitary  arrangements 
of  the  buildings  "  shall  be  such  as  to  secure  hygienic  condi- 
tions for  both  pupils  and  teachers."  (5)  Schools  must  rank 
well  in  general  efficiency  of  instruction,  and  in  intellectual  and 
moral  tone.  (6)  A  school  must  have  at  least  four  teachers  of 
academic  subjects ;  the  average  number  of  pupils  per  teacher 
must  not  be  above  thirty. 

Visitation  and  examination  of  the  schools  was  to  be  done 
by  a  Board  of  Inspectors.  From  five,  at  first,  the  number 
of  inspectors  had  grown  in  1912  to  twenty-one.  Seven  of 
these  are  the  regular  official  inspectors,  each  representing 
the  department  of  education  of  his  state ;  fourteen  are  rep- 
resentatives of  the  universities  and  colleges  belonging  to  the 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     169 

North  Central  Association.  In  one  or  other  form  fourteen 
states  are  represented. 

The  Board  intended  from  the  first  that  its  accredited 
schools  should  constitute  an  honor  list,  and  went  to  work  very 
conservatively.  The  first  list  of  accredited  schools  was  pub- 
lished in  1904,  and  contained  the  names  of  157  schools  rep- 
resenting ten  states;  on  the  list  of  1912  there  were  837 
schools  representing  eighteen  states. 

The  work  of  the  Board  has  been  extremely  valuable.  It 
has  proved  to  be,  within  its  field,  the  greatest  administrative 
agency  yet  devised ;  it  is  coordinating  the  different  schools 
and  colleges  throughout  a  wide  area ;  it  is  reducing  to  a 
minimum  of  expenditure,  with  a  maximum  of  efficiency,  the 
labor  and  cost  involved  in  the  former  methods ;  it  is  steadily 
fostering  and  enhancing  the  growth  of  cordial  relations  be- 
tween schools  and  colleges. 

In  1911,  the  Southern  Commission  on  Accredited  Schools 
was  formed  by  the  Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary 
Schools  of  the  Southern  States. 

The  commission  was  charged  with  preparing  a  "  Southern 
List  of  Accredited  Schools  for  the  use  of  the  colleges  of  the 
South  and  of  other  sections,  and  furthermore,  to  stimulate 
and  aid  the  high  schools  to  reach  higher  standards  of  scholar- 
ship and  better  conditions  for  teachers  and  pupils.  .  .  .  The 
Southern  list  will  be  an  honor  list  of  schools  for  the  entire 
section." 

This  commission  was  largely  influenced  as  to  formation 
and  purposes  by  the  North  Central  Association,  so  that 
"  practically  the  same  standards  and  units  will  be  recognized 
by  twenty-nine  states,  from  Montana  to  Florida,  and  from 
Michigan  to  Texas." 

It  seems  probable  that  the  operations  of  the  Board,  either 
directly  or  by  imitation,  will  ultimately  embrace  the  whole 
territory  of  the  Union,  except  possibly  the  North  Atlantic 
states. 


170          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Of  Western  origin,  the  accrediting  system,  radically  modified 
to  be  sure,  found  its  way  in  the  seventies  into  New  England 
and  the  East,  where  it  was  ultimately  adopted,  at  least  in 
part,  by  all  colleges  except  a  few  of  the  largest. 

The  two  most  fundamental  modifications  of  the  Western 
plan  of  accrediting  as  it  developed  in  the  East  were  :  (i)  Ap- 
plicants were  admitted  to  college  on  certificate,  i.e.  a  state- 
ment made  by  a  principal  or  a  teacher.  Graduation  from 
and  recommendation  by  a  standardized  secondary  school  was 
not  required.  (2)  Schools  were  not  inspected ;  information 
concerning  them  was  obtained,  if  at  all,  mainly  by  corre- 
spondence. 

By  these  two  modifications  were  abrogated  the  most  valu- 
able characteristics  of  the  original  accrediting  system.  Conse- 
quently, while  in  the  West,  with  its  closer  educational  or- 
ganization, the  system  grew  constantly  in  favor,  in  the  East, 
where  educational  individualism  was  more  prevalent,  it  sank, 
under  the  pressure  of  college  competition,  to  a  very  low  degree 
of  efficiency. 

The  very  evils  of  the  situation,  however,  together  with  a 
recognition  of  the  evident  advantages  of  accrediting  when 
properly  managed,  led  to  a  wide-reaching  reform.  This  re- 
form took  shape  in  1902,  when  there  was  organized  in  Boston, 
by  delegates  from  certain  colleges,  the  New  England  College 
Entrance  Certificate  Board.  The  organization  was  formed 
"  for  the  purpose  of  receiving,  examining,  and  acting  upon 
all  applications  of  schools  that  should  ask  for  the  privilege  of 
certification." 

The  operations  of  the  Board  are  confined  to  schools  within 
New  England.  Its  means  of  securing  information  concerning 
schools  are  mainly :  (a)  written  information  furnished  by  the 
school ;  (b]  the  scholarship  records  made  in  the  colleges  by 
"  certified  "  representatives  of  the  schools. 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  marked  contrast  with  the 
constitution  of  the  Western  accrediting  commission  this  is 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     171 

wholly  a  college  organization ;  the  schools  have  no  repre- 
sentation on  the  Board  and  no  voice  in  determining  its  policy. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  provision  for  visiting  the  schools  by 
the  college  men,  with  the  consequent  better  mutual  under- 
standing, which  has  proved  so  valuable  a  feature  of  the  West- 
ern plan.  There  seems  to  be  no  attempt  to  cooperate  with 
the  schools  with  a  view  to  helping  to  solve  the  ever  more 
pressing  problems  of  secondary  education.  The  Board  re- 
gards the  schools  only  as  factories  for  turning  out  college 
student  material.  Thus :  "  The  ability  of  pupils  to  pursue 
their  college  work  satisfactorily  is  the  only  evidence  that  the 
Board  can  consider  sufficient  to  warrant  approval  of  the 
school." 

Among  the  most  important  rules  of  the  Board  governing 
the  "  certification  "  of  schools  are  :  (a)  Schools  must  apply 
in  writing  and  furnish  detailed  information  upon  blanks  fur- 
nished by  the  Board  concerning  courses  of  study,  teachers,  and 
equipment,  (b)  A  school  must  be  able  (i)  to  prepare  for  at 
least  one  college  of  the  Association ;  (2)  to  show  "  by  the 
record  of  its  students  already  admitted  to  college  [by  ex- 
amination] its  ability  to  give  thorough  preparation  for  college." 
(c)  Schools  are  approved  for  three  years  after  one  trial  year. 

Within  its  field  and  purpose,  —  to  confine  the  issuance  of 
certificates  to  worthy  students  and  by  responsible  schools, 
and  to  establish  the  merits  of  the  accrediting  method  of  ad- 
mitting to  college,  —  the  Board  has  been  markedly  successful. 
For  when  the  Board  was  organized,  there  were  five  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  New  England  schools  on  the  approved 
lists  of  one  or  more  of  the  ten  colleges  which  had  been  receiv- 
ing students  by  certificate ;  but  the  first  year  of  the  Board's 
operations  it  approved  only  one  hundred  and  seven  schools ; 
and  nine  years  later  (TQII),  the  approved  list  of  schools  num- 
bered but  three  hundred  and  fifty-six.  As  to  scholarship,  in 
all  the  more  recent  reports  of  the  Board  are  given  extensive 
detailed  comparisons  of  the  relative  standings  of  those  students 


172  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

who  entered  by  the  Board's  certificate  plan  and  those  who 
entered  by  examination. 

A  few  quotations  from  the  Board's  annual  reports  in  order 
of  publication  will  give  the  gist  of  the  conclusions :  "  It  ap- 
pears from  the  tables  that  the  per  cent  of  failures  among 
those  who  enter  on  certificate  is  much  lower  than  among 
those  who  enter  on  examination."  (Sixth  annual  report.) 
"  The  per  cent  of  failures  among  those  who  enter  on  cer- 
tificate continues  much  lower  than  among  those  who  enter 
on  examination."  (Seventh  annual  report.)  "  From  this  it 
appears  that  the  number  of  failures  among  those  entering  by 
examination  is  relatively  half  as  many  again  as  among  those 
entering  on  certificate.  This  difference  between  the  two 
classes  persists  from  whatever  point  of  view  we  regard  the 
statistics."  (Ninth  annual  report.) 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What  factors  entered  into  the  establishment  and  development  of 
the  high  school  system  in  your  own  state  ? 

2.  What  relation  exists  or  should  exist  between  the  high  school  and 
the  elementary  school  in  your  own  state  ? 

3.  Do  better  relations  exist  in  other  states  ? 

4.  What  variations  exist  between  the  high  schools  of  your  state  and 
of  other  states  ? 

5.  To  what  extent  are  the  high  schools  of  your  state  college  pre- 
paratory schools  and  to  what  extent  are  they  influenced  or  dominated 
by  the  colleges  ? 

6.  To  what   extent,   as  shown  by  statistical  investigation  and  by 
curricula,  are  they  finishing  schools  ? 

7.  To  what  extent  have  they  developed  vocational  characteristics? 

8.  What  is  the  form  of    control  exercised    over  the    high  schools  ? 
Can  improvements  be  suggested  ? 

9.  To  what   extent   does  your   own  state  have  a  rural  high  school 
system  ?     What  are  its  characteristic  features  and  the  form  of  control  ? 
How  may  these  rural  high  schools  be  improved  ?     How  do  the  curricula 
differ  from  the  schools  of  towns  and  cities  ? 

10.  How  do  the  rural  high  schools  of  your  state  compare  with  those 
of  other  states  ? 


High  School  Systems  of  the   United  States     173 

11.  Through  what  stages  of  financial  support  have  the  high  schools 
of  your  state  passed  ? 

12.  What  is  the  basis  of  apportionment  of  funds  to  high  schools  in 
your  state  ?     What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  this  system  ? 

13.  What  system  of  inspection  and  accrediting  of  schools  exists  in 
your  state  ?     What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  this  system 
as  actually  demonstrated  ? 

14.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  high  school  of  the  various  methods  of  college  entrance  ? 

15.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  a  state  system 
of  inspection  of  high  schools  ? 

REFERENCES 

BOLTON,  F.  E.     Special  State  Aid  to  High  Schools.     Ednc.  Rev.,  Vol. 

XXXI,  pp.  141-166. 

BROWN,  E.  E.     The  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools.     New  York,  1903. 
BROWN,  J.  F.     The  American  High  School.     New  York,  1909. 
CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.     School  Funds  and  their  Apportionment,  Ch.  XIV. 

New  York,  1905. 

DAVENPORT,  E.     Education  for  Efficiency.     Boston,  1909. 
England,  Board  of  Education.     Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects, 

Vol.  XI.     Education  in  the  United  States  of  America.     London,  1902. 
HOLLISTER,  H.  A.     High  School  Administration.     Boston,  1909. 
INGLIS,  A.  J.     Rise  of  the  High  School  in  Massachusetts.     New  York, 

1911. 
JOHNSTON,  C.  H.     High  School  Education.     New  York,  1912. 

The  Modern  High  School,  its   Administration   and   Extension.     New 

York,  1914. 
Proceedings  of  the  Association  of  College  and   Preparatory  Schools  of 

the  Middle  States  and  Maryland. 
Report  of  the  Committee  on  Secondary  School   Studies,  known  as  the 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten.     (Appointed  by  the  N.  E.  A.  in  July, 

1892.) 
SNYDER,  E.  R.     The  Legal  Status  of  Rural  High  Schools.    New  York, 

1909. 
See  also  Educational  Review  and  School  Review. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  ORGANIZATION  OF    THE   HIGH   SCHOOL 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL 
DETERMINES  ITS  EFFICIENCY.  —  The  administration 
of  a  high  school  is  the  enacting  clause  for  the  whole  in- 
stitution. It  is  the  executive  department  that  must  make 
effective  the  legislation  embodied  in  the  curriculum.  It  is 
the  clearing  house  that  must  adjust  the  relations  of  the 
various  teachers  and  departments  to  each  other  and  to 
the  school  as  a  whole.  It  is  the  personal  equation 
between  pupils  and  teachers  and  between  school  and 
home.  It  is  the  prime  minister  that  must  interpret  popular 
needs  to  the  people's  legislators.  Without  efficient  adminis- 
tration a  million-dollar  school  plant  may  become  the  splendid 
mausoleum  of  the  hopes  and  opportunities  of  youth  and  of 
the  self-devotion  of  a  faculty.  With  efficient  administration 
a  tumble-down  brickery  may  become  a  temple  of  culture, 
service,  and  democracy. 

The  Principal  is  the  Chief  Factor  in  the  Administration.  - 
The  principal  must  of  course  always  be  the  chief  administrative 
officer  of  a  school.  Good  administration,  however,  means 
that  he  should  not  be  a  czar.  Granted,  for  sake  of  argument, 
that  he  is  the  wisest  and  most  capable  person  in  the  organiza- 
tion, he  certainly  is  not  wiser  and  more  capable  than  himself 
plus  his  faculty,  by  axiom.  The  genius  of  American  institu- 
tions is  democratic,  and  if  the  American  high  school  is  to 
develop  in  harmony  with  this  genius  it  must  embody  the  es- 
sential elements  of  democracy. 

174 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School.        175 

Full  Support  of  the  Faculty  Necessary  for  the  Best  Results. 
-  In  small  schools  the  teachers  should  all  be  advisers  of  the 
principal.  Important  measures  should  command  that  sup- 
port from  the  entire  faculty  that  can  come  only  from  free 
discussion  and  concurrent  decision.  In  large  schools  that 
have  departmental  organization  the  heads  of  departments 
should  form  a  cabinet  that  will  give  administrative  measures 
the  representative  support  and  advice  of  the  faculty.  The 
department  faculties  will  in  turn  discuss  departmental  matters 
as  well  as  general  administrative  policies  so  that  the  demo- 
cratic principle  may  be  maintained  throughout. 

Neither  faculty,  cabinet,  nor  department  should,  however, 
degenerate  into  a  mere  debating  or  disputing  society.  The 
relation  of  the  official  head  to  any  of  these  units  must  be  that 
of  any  similar  responsible  officer  in  any  executive  body.  He 
may  veto  a  measure  generally  approved  or  he  may  order  a 
course  of  action  generally  disapproved;  but  he  will  do  neither 
of  these  things  without  the  most  deliberate  consideration 
and  the  most  weighty  reasons.  The  principal  who  has  the 
personality,  judgment,  and  training  demanded  by  his  position 
will  very  seldom  find  it  necessary  to  differ  radically  from  the 
combined  opinion  of  his  advisers. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADMINISTRATION.  —  Given,  then, 
a  more  or  less  adequate  high  school  building  and  equipment,  the 
high  school  pupils  of  a  community,  a  more  or  less  adequate 
faculty;  the  first  problem  of  the  high  school  administrator 
is  to  furnish  the  necessary  systematization  of  details  to  en- 
able the  teachers  and  pupils  to  work  together  to  the  best 
possible  advantage. 

The  Course  of  Study.  —  Perhaps  the  first,  as  well  as  the  most 
important,  question  to  be  considered  is,  what  subjects  shall  be 
taught?  The  treatment  of  this  topic  in  other  chapters  makes 
its  discussion  hero  unnecessary,  yet  the  problem  is  so  funda- 
mental that  certain  aspects  of  it  must  necessarily  creep  into 
any  consideration  of  the  high  school.  On  no  other  subject 


176          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

are  school  men  more  likely  to  be  dogmatic,  and  on  none  is 
there  so  great  need  of  a  careful,  scientific  study  of  facts  as  a 
basis  for  procedure.  In  determining  the  course  of  study  for 
any  given  group  of  students,  the  needs  of  the  community, 
the  abilities  and  the  social  and  industrial  destinies  of  the  pupils, 
and  the  limitations  imposed  by  the  financial  means  at  the 
disposal  of  the  school  should  be  the  deciding  factors  rather 
than  traditions  or  a  priori  theories  as  to  what  constitutes 
"  an  education." 

The  school  administrator  of  to-day  must  remember  that 
the  problem  of  secondary  education  has  grown  infinitely  more 
complicated  than  it  was  when  it  was  supposedly  settled  with 
such  amazing  finality  by  the  Committee  of  Ten.  The 
students  outnumber  those  of  twenty  years  ago  by  about  four 
to  one.  Congestion  of  population  in  the  cities  has  brought 
with  it  social  problems  undreamed  of  two  decades  ago.  The 
perfection  of  machinery  has  revolutionized  industry  within 
that  time.  Organized  society  as  represented  by  municipality, 
state,  and  nation  has  been  compelled  to  assert  the  rights  of 
the  social  whole  in  an  infinite  variety  of  relations  at  that  time 
only  dimly  apprehended.  Then  we  believed  that  our  natural 
resources  were  inexhaustible ;  to-day  we  know  that  the  rights 
of  succeeding  generations  demand  wise  conservation.  Then 
we  ignored  political  corruption,  especially  in  our  cities ;  now 
we  recognize  in  the  conspiracies  of  machine  politics  and  unscru- 
pulous business  a  challenge  against  the  life  of  our  democracy. 
We  have  come  to  see  that  every  economic  question  is  funda- 
mentally a  moral  and  spiritual  question.  So  child  labor,  a 
living  wage,  safe  and  sanitary  working  conditions,  public 
health,  infant  mortality,  the  liquor  problem,  are  all  recog- 
nized as  the  business  of  every  good  citizen. 

The  public  school  is  the  one  completely  socialized  agency 
for  the  improvement  of  society.  The  public  high  school  is, 
at  present,  the  most  advanced  part  of  this  institution.  From 
its  product  will  come  the  vast  majority  of  to-morrow's  leaders. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       177 

Obviously  those  charged  with  its  administration  must  not 
content  themselves  with  pharisaical  platitudes  about  culture 
and  discipline  in  place  of  open-minded  response  to  obvious 
public  needs.  The  awakened  social  consciousness  of  the 
school  administrator  will  furnish  guidance  in  almost  every 
problem  that  arises  in  his  day's  work.  It  will  make  him 
question  all  the  traditions  of  his  craft,  and  if  his  attitude  of 
mind  is  backed  by  a  powerful  personality,  such  a  principal 
will  completely  transform  the  spirit  of  any  high  school  whose 
ideal  has  been  the  increase  of  the  sum  total  of  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  algebra. 

THE  DAILY  ROSTER  FOR  PROMOTION  BY  SUB- 
JECT. —  After  the  course  of  study  has  been  determined,  the 
next  problem  is  the  making  of  the  daily  roster.  Under  the  sys- 
tem of  promotion  by  grades  this  was  a  comparatively  simple 
task.  Pupils  were  platooned  into  approximately  equal  groups 
and  moved  in  mass.  Unfortunately  this  procedure  made  it  nec- 
essary for  a  pupil  failing  in  one  or  two  subjects  to  repeat  all 
others,  no  matter  how  well  they  had  been  mastered,  or  else  to 
go  ahead  with  his  group  when  certain  subjects  had  been  so 
poorly  learned  as  to  make  further  progress  impossible.  A  third 
evil,  fully  as  great,  although  less  apparent,  was  that  it  made 
consideration  of  the  individual  needs  of  pupils  practically 
impossible.  Even  in  the  higher  grammar  grades  this  system 
is  now  being  abandoned  in  many  progressive  schools,  and  in 
high  schools  it  is  tolerated  in  only  a  few  communities. 

Making  the  roster  for  promotion  by  subjects  is  the  most 
complicated  task  in  the  organization  of  a  high  school.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  the  real  difficulties  become  fewer,  the  larger 
the  school.  This  is  true  because  in  a  larger  school  there 
will  be  two  or  more  classes  in  nearly  every  subject.  There- 
fore, the  pupil  who  has  in  his  roster  a  conflict  with  one  period 
of  a  certain  subject  will  be  able  to  recite  another  period.  The 
longer  the  school  day,  the  fewer  will  be  the  number  of  con- 
flicts, because  each  pupil  will  have  more  vacant  periods.  It 


178  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

is  only  because  of  their  longer  school  -day  that  small  schools 
can  make  successful  rosters  for  promotion  by  subjects. 

Data  Necessary  as  a  Working  Basis.  —  The  first  step  in 
making  a  roster  is  to  determine  the  number  of  pupils  likely 
to  require  each  subject  to  be  offered.  This  can  be  ascertained 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  term  from  some  such  card  as  the 
one  shown  opposite.  If  the  reports  were  sent  out  monthly,  of 
course  additional  columns  like  those  designated  "  Marks  " 
would  be  required.  After  the  next  to  the  last  report  of  the 
term  it  is  possible  in  the  majority  of  cases  to  estimate  with 
a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  the  prospects  of  passing  or  failure 
for  each  pupil  in  every  subject.  The  experience  of  the  school 
as  to  percentage  of  passing  in  each  subject  furnishes  a  valuable 
check  on  this  estimate.  From  the  estimate  of  numbers  based 
on  a  count  of  "  Subjects  next  term,"  with  due  allowances  for 
failures,  the  number  of  classes  in  each  subject  can  be  deter- 
mined. 


The  figure  opposite  shows  the  organization  card  of  the  William  Penn  high 
school,  Philadelphia.  Early  in  the  term  the  heading,  and  the  data  under  "Studies 
This  Term"  are  filled  out  by  the  pupils,  "Hrs."  shows  the  number  of  recitations 
per  week,  and  the  check  mark  in  column  "R"  shows  what  the  pupil  is  repeating, 
D  Geometry,  for  example,  on  this  card.  At  report  time  teachers  put  in  marks 
and  their  own  initials.  The  column  "Studies  Next  Term"  is  filled  in  by  the 
counts  before  the  final  mark  is  entered.  They  are  required  to  follow  the  course 
of  study  in  choice  of  studies  for  "next  term"  unless  a  change  is  authorized  by 
the  principal.  The  "Record  Teacher"  is  responsible  for  seeing  that  the  course 
of  study  is  followed,  that  subjects  failed  are  included  in  next  term's  list,  that 
counts  are  entered  in  the  first  column  at  the  left,  and  that  the  pupil  is  correctly 
graded  for  the  coming  term.  The  "Record  Teacher's"  name  at  the  upper  right- 
hand  corner  indicates  that  she  has  passed  the  card  as  correct  in  all  details. 
The  daily  roster  for  next  term  is  then  entered  by  the  organization  committee. 
The  number  above  the  faint  line  in  each  case  indicates  the  room  in  which  the 
class  is  held.  "400"  is  the  study  hall,  and  the  letter  and  figure  in  the  space 
below  indicate  the  pupil's  seat  for  the  period.  This  item  is  not  entered  until 
the  beginning  of  "next  term,"  when  a  committee  of  the  Student's  Association 
seats  the  pupils  in  strictly  alphabetical  order.  The  first  day  of  "next  term" 
the  pupil  makes  a  copy  of  her  roster  from  the  bottom  of  this  card  and  the  organ- 
ization card  is  returned  to  the  office.  This  is  the  card  of  an  irregular  pupil 
who  had  deferred  Latin  for  one  term  so  as  to  make  up  geometry. 


Tlie  Organization  oj  the  High  School        179 


••  RECORD  TEACHER,"  d.<o.  /'fait. 
.    Grade  /f.      Bk.  21.     Jat'l  19  1-7-  . 


Surname  First 


.    Telephone 


Entered 


191__. 


Address 

"..'<?.  ?if fi.  Course.  College  or 


d'w(.i.tt/iiiu>i£. .  C'ts  CO. 


Ci  A  STI-DIES  ,,          ,,  3          TK'S 

CLASS        THIS  TEKM  INIIIALS 


MAKKS     CLASS       XT 


STUDIES 
NEXT  TERM 


i    € 


ti.R.t. 


/a5 


B 


13 


Counts  earned  this  term  ?  <5>          Grade  next  term  ?  <g  +  #; 


TUESDAY  WEDNESDAY 


THURSDAY 


322 


S'k 


ui  t£3' 


302 


H-25 


.  Si*. 


302 


105 


'(  r 


L-5 


K-3 


H-15 


R-27 


2/ 


K-3 


61 


1 


'25 


(!•  Latin 


125 

Latin 


WILLIAM  PENN  HIGH  SCHOOL.   PHILADELPHIA. 


180          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Non-conflicting  Term  Units  are  Necessary.  —  Then  some 
system  of  non-conflicting  periods  must  be  provided.1  The 
simplest  is  to  make  the  division  by  daily  periods  straight 
through  the  week  as  shown  on  the  bottom  of  the  foregoing 
organization  card. 

Regular  and  Irregular  Students.  —  Next  the  subjects  can 
be  placed  on  the  roster.  The  first  consideration,  of  course,  is 
to  arrange  so  that  a  pupil  taking  the  regular  work  of  any 
course  shall  be  able  to  make  his  roster.  Then  provision  must 
be  made  for  a  pupil  failing  in  one  or  in  two  subjects  to  repeat 
the  subjects  failed.  Usually  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  tell 
where  the  failures  are  most  likely  to  occur.  For  example, 
in  the  first  term  the  majority  of  failures  will  be  in  foreign 
language  and  Algebra.  Therefore,  the  roster  should  provide 
amply  for  pupils  who  have  failed  in  one  of  these  subjects  or 
in  both  to  go  ahead  with  the  subjects  they  have  passed. 

Double  Periods.  —  The  bete  noir  of  the  roster  maker  is 
the  double  period.  Science  teachers  always  insist  that  they 
cannot  do  their  work  without  double  periods  for  the  labora- 
tory. It  is  obvious  also  that  cooking  cannot  be  successfully 
taught  in  a  forty-five  minute  period.  In  many  other  subjects, 
including  all  forms  of  manual  training  and  shop  work,  double 
periods  at  least  a  part  of  the  time  can  be  successfully  used. 
Some  of  the  difficulties  with  double  periods  can  be  overcome 
by  combining  two  subjects  in  the  same  course  so  that  their 
time  fits  together.  For  example,  if  physics  recites  the  first 
period  the  first  four  days  of  the  week  and  doubles  to  cover 
the  first  and  second  Monday,  any  subject  of  the  same  term 
which  recites  four  times  a  week  can  be  placed  in  the  second 
period  for  the  last  four  days,  or  such  a  combination  can  be 
made  as  is  shown  on  the  bottom  of  the  organization  card 
(page  179).  When  there  are  many  subjects  requiring  double 

1  In  an  article,  "Making  a  High  School  Program,"  in  the  School  Review, 
September,  1909,  Myron  M.  Richardson  describes  a  system  of  rotating  the 
daily  periods. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        181 


periods  there  should  be  a  secondary  non-conflicting  arrange- 
ment. For  example,  the  first  and  second,  the  third  and  fourth, 
and  the  fifth  and  sixth  periods  should  be  grouped  together, 
and  no  combination  should  be  permitted  across  the  dividing 
lines,  such  as  running  a  class  from  the  second  into  the  third, 
or  from  the  fourth  into  the  fifth,  period. 


MONDAY 

TUESDAY 

WEDNESDAY 

THURSDAY 

;FRIDAY 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

4 

2 

I 

I 

I 

I 

4 

3 

4 

2 

2 

2 

2 

4 

4 

2 

2 

2 

2 

5 

3 

3 

4 

3 

3 

6 

3 

3 

4 

3 

3 

7 

4 

4 

An  ingenious  combination  of  four  non-conflicting  double- 
period  groups  is  used  in  some  schools  as  indicated  in  the  table 
above.  The  ordinary  pupil  will  have  at  least  two  or  three 
subjects  that  do  not  require  double  periods.  If  the  curriculum 
is  based  on  a  four-period-per-week  unit,  at  least  two  of  these 
can  be  placed  in  one  of  the  blocks,  for  example  in  the  one 
marked  i.  Then  the  double-period  subjects  can  be  arranged 
in  the  three  remaining  blocks  with  less  likelihood  of  conflict. 
This  device  calls  for  a  seven-period  day.  It  also  provides 
three  periods  per  week,  namely,  the  seventh  on  Monday, 
Wednesday,  and  Friday,  when  there  are  no  classes.  Of  course 
a  rearrangement  of  the  periods  would  place  these  general 
periods  wherever  in  the  week  they  were  desired.  The  value 
of  such  periods  will  be  immediately  evident  to  any  adminis- 
trator. It  will  be  possible  at  that  time  for  any  teacher  to 


1 82  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

meet  any  pupil  or  any  group  of  pupils  in  the  school.  Lectures 
and  other  outside  attractions  can  be  brought  in  at  that  time 
without  disturbing  the  regular  work.  High  school  dramatics, 
student  government  activities,  and  any  other  desirable  feature 
involving  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  student  body  can  be 
placed  in  those  periods. 

Advantages  of  a  Regular  Roster  Maker.  —  The  variety 
of  schemes  of  roster  making  by  different  schools  is  almost 
infinite,  but  the  fundamentals  enumerated  above  are  prac- 
tically uniform.  In  a  small  school  it  becomes  necessary  to 
make  a  tabulated  list  of  all  pupils,  particularly  of  those  in 
the  higher  classes,  and  to  plan  the  roster  so  as  to  provide  for 
individual  exigencies.  Indeed  the  problem  presents  infinite 
varieties  of  form  in  different  schools.  Fortunately  there  are 
many  ways  around  difficulties  that  to  the  uninitiated  would 
seem  unsurmountable.  These  can,  however,  be  learned  only 
by  experience.  The  making  of  the  roster  presents  a  difficult 
problem  in  permutations,  but  it  is  fundamental.  In  the 
largest  schools  the  principal  may  delegate  it  to  a  teacher  who 
has  particular  aptness  for  such  tasks,  making  due  allowance 
in  his  or  her  teaching  assignments.  This  is  probably  the  best 
way  out  of  the  difficulty,  as  the  regular  roster  maker  soon 
acquires  great  skill  in  manipulating  the  details.  After  a 
few  reorganizations  he  will  develop  a  roster  that,  with  com- 
paratively slight  changes,  will  remain  permanent  from  term 
to  term.  However  it  may  ultimately  be  managed,  intimate 
acquaintance  with  this  roster  problem  is  an  absolute  essential 
in  the  equipment  of  a  high  school  administrator. 

ASSIGNMENT  OF  WORK  TO  TEACHERS.  —  Along  with 
the  arrangement  of  the  various  classes  on  the  roster  must  go  of 
course  the  assignment  of  work  to  teachers.  The  number  of 
periods  and  the  number  of  different  subjects  allotted  to  each 
teacher  varies  widely.  In  the  smaller  schools  the  require- 
ment is  so  high,  both  in  teaching  hours  and  in  variety  of  work, 
that  satisfactory  work  is  impossible.  The  report  on  Educa- 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        183 

tion  in  Vermont,  issued  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation,  discusses 
a  situation  that  is  more  or  less  common  throughout  the  country. 
The  Number  of  Periods  required  a  Week  from  each 
Teacher.  —  "  A  table  in  Part  III !  gives  the  average  number 
of  class  recitations  per  week  taught  by  the  full-time  teachers 
in  each  school.  The  limits  within  which  a  teacher  may  be 
expected  to  do  a  high  grade  of  work  naturally  vary  with  the 
character  of  the  subjects  taught,  the  amount  of  special 
preparation  necessary,  the  quantity  of  written  work  to  be 
reviewed  and  corrected,  and  the  number  of  individual  prob- 
lems, the  amount  of  bookkeeping,  and  the  strain  of  class  at- 
tention which  the  size  of  the  class  involves.  It  is  generally 
agreed,  however,  that,  with  a  normal  class  membership  of 
20  to  25,  no  teacher  can  hope  to  give  successful  secondary 
instruction  with  a  program  of  more  than  25  class  periods  per 
week,  and  20  is  much  better.  For  teachers  of  English  under 
present  methods  even  this  latter  number  should  be  reduced. 
Beyond  25  periods,  quality  deteriorates  rapidly  and  gives 
place  to  the  merest  hack  work,  however  well  meant.  It  is 
assumed,  furthermore,  in  setting  up  this  maximum,  that  a 
teacher  is  teaching  one  or  two  groups  of  subjects  for  which 
he  has  had  special  preparation.  Three  classes  of  Latin  and 
two  of  German  constitute  a  program  preferable  in  all  respects 
to  live  classes  of  Latin;  but  good  work  cannot  be  done  with 
a  program  made  up  of  senior  Latin,  junior  physics,  second- 
year  history,  first-year  English,  and  algebra.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  glance  at  the  table  mentioned  to  see  how  Ver- 
mont high  school  requirements  compare  with  this  standard; 
60  of  the  77  schools  are  burdening  their  teachers  with  an 
amount  and  variety  of  work  which  makes  excellence  impos- 
sible. Unfortunately,  a  low  quality  of  teaching  is  not  readily 
detected  by  the  lay  mind,  and  under  such  conditions  formalism, 
cant,  and  ignorance  are  likely  to  overcome  the  best  intentions." 

1  This  table  shows  that  teachers  in  Vermont  high  schools  teach  from  28  to 
48  periods  per  week. 


184  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Special  Duties.  —  It  will  be  found  advisable  in  a  large 
school  to  make  allowances  on  the  teaching  roster  for  various 
special  duties  as  well  as  for  peculiar  conditions  in  the  work  of 
certain  subjects.  The  necessity  of  thorough  correction  of 
themes  and  personal  conferences  with  pupils  in  English  is 
generally  coming  to  be  recognized  as  sufficient  reason  for  a 
somewhat  lower  requirement  in  teaching  hours  in  this  subject. 
On  the  other  hand,  subjects  like  sewing,  cooking,  manual 
training,  and  drawing,  which  call  for  less  outside  preparation, 
may  fairly  permit  a  somewhat  larger  requirement  in  actual 
teaching  hours.  In  a  large  school  certain  administrative 
duties  must  be  delegated  to  teachers  if  the  principal  is  to  be 
free  to  use  his  time  to  the  best  advantage  in  furthering  the 
growth  of  his  school  along  the  broader  lines.  A  city  school, 
for  example,  needs  a  vocational  bureau  that  will  study  the 
opportunities  of  employment  and  make  known  to  pupils 
something  of  their  scope.  This  bureau  should  also  have 
charge  of  the  placement  of  graduates  and  of  the  part-time 
placement  of  pupils  who  would  be  compelled  to  leave  school 
if  some  means  of  earning  money  could  not  be  secured.  The 
supervision  of  student  activities  is  another  function  that  re- 
quires much  special  attention.  Teachers  who  assume  such 
important  duties  as  this  should  not  be  required  to  carry  full 
teaching  rosters. 

THE  PRINCIPAL'S  RELATION  TO  THE  VARIOUS  AC- 
TIVITIES OF  THE  SCHOOL.  —  The  principal  must  be  kept 
in  touch  with  all  of  these  activities  of  his  school  by  frequent 
conferences  with  the  teachers  in  charge  of  them.  He  should 
show  his  vital  interest  by  visits  to  the  various  groups  of 
students.  He  should  have  a  clear  and  definite  idea  of  the 
place  of  every  activity  in  the  life  of  the  school,  and  he  should 
of  course  exercise  the  greatest  care  in  selecting  faculty  spon- 
sors. No  greater  mistake  can  be  made,  however,  than  for 
him  to  think  that  he  is  the  only  person  in  the  school  capable 
of  developing  a  line  of  action.  The  oft-quoted  dictum  of 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       185 

Miles  Standish  must  be  radically  amended  by  any  manager 
of  a  large  and  complicated  organization  whether  of  school 
or  of  business.  It  should  be  revised  so  as  to  read,  —  "  If 
you  would  have  a  thing  well  done,  select  the  right  person  to 
do  it,  keep  your  hands  off,  and  require  results."  This  is  the 
principle  of  functional  management  that  has  played  so  large 
a  part  in  the  scientific  management  successes  of  Frederick 
W.  Taylor  and  his  disciples.  It  is  very  generally  applied  in 
business,  but  it  is  often  ignored  in  school  management.  The 
principal  who  feels  it  necessary  to  answer  minute  questions 
and  follow  up  all  the  petty  details  of  a  large  school  will  find  it 
absolutely  impossible  to  extend  his  vision  beyond  the  pin- 
points to  which  he  is  devoting  his  energy.  Moreover,  he 
will  neither  utilize  to  the  best  advantage  the  various  abilities 
of  his  teachers  nor  develop  their  individuality  and  initiative. 
In  this  way  his  school  will  be  the  loser,  for  he  must  be  a  rare 
leader  who  can  do  each  of  the  various  kinds  of  task  involved 
in  the  management  of  a  great  school  better  than  any  one  of 
the  dozen  or  hundred  people  in  his  faculty. 

The  attitude  of  mind  of  the  principal  on  this  particular 
point  is  much  more  vital  than  might  be  seen  at  first.  A 
teacher  to  whom  a  task  is  given  only  with  minute  directions 
for  every  detail  naturally  refuses  to  assume  full  responsibility 
for  results.  If  the  principal  habitually  withholds  or  refuses 
freedom  to  members  of  his  faculty  to  work  out  in  their  own 
way  the  problems  he  assigns  to  them,  they  soon  come  to  look 
upon  the  administration  as  none  of  their  affair,  and  confine 
their  efforts  as  nearly  as  possible  inside  the  walls  of  their 
classrooms.  Unless  suggestions  and  criticisms  are  wel- 
comed, the  breach  between  administration  and  instruction 
is  widened.  Perhaps  \vorst  of  all,  the  spirit  of  the  school 
develops  into  a  wooden  response  to  authority  without  that 
desire  for  cooperation  for  the  general  good  that  is  essential 
to  the  largest  service  of  the  institution  that  is  forming  the 
subconscious  basis  of  the  citizenship  of  to-morrow. 


1 86          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

RELATION  BETWEEN  THE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL 
AND  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  —  Some  of  the  most  vexatious 
problems  in  high  school  administration  are  found  in  the  rela- 
tions of  the  school  with  the  educational  institutions  below  and 
above  it.  The  difficulty  of  articulation  with  the  college  has 
been  the  subject  of  a  long  and  bitter  controversy.  The  need 
of  better  articulation  with  the  elementary  school  is  now  claim- 
ing serious  study.  In  the  small  towns  where  all  of  the  educa- 
tional facilities  are  supervised  by  one  principal  this  adjust- 
ment offers  little  difficulty.  Generally  speaking,  it  becomes 
more  and  more  of  a  problem  the  larger  the  city.  In  many 
cities  the  authority  of  the  superintendent  of  schools  over  the 
high  schools  is  vague  and  uncertain,  and  the  direct  coopera- 
tion between  the  grammar  and  high  schools  almost  nil.  The 
entire  reorganization  of  the  twelve  years  of  the  public  school 
into  a  six-year  elementary  school  and  either  a  six-year  high 
school  or  a  junior  and  a  senior  high  school  of  three  years  each 
is  doubtless  the  best  solution  of  the  problem  of  articulation 
between  the  elementary  and  the  secondary  school.  The 
tendency  towards  this  change  seems  to  be  rapid,  but  its  pros- 
pect should  not  keep  other  efforts  at  coordination  from  being 
made. 

Cooperation  between  the  High  School  Principal  and  the 
Grammar  School  Principal.  —  The  most  obvious  point  of 
contact  is  between  the  high  school  and  the  grammar  school 
principal.  A  mutual  understanding  here  will  be  of  great 
advantage  to  the  pupils.  The  grammar  school  principal 
should  visit  the  high  school,  go  into  the  classes  where  his 
former  pupils  are  working,  learn  the  meaning  of  the  high 
school  opportunities  available  for  his  pupils,  and  give  much 
personal  attention  to  the  selection  of  courses  by  individuals 
before  they  enter.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  his  advice  and 
counsel  should  be  welcomed  by  the  high  school  principal. 
Individual  peculiarities  that  seem  inexplicable  are  often  ex- 
plained by  the  closer  personal  knowledge  of  the  workers  in 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        187 

the  lower  school.  Not  infrequently  the  grammar  school 
principal  can  throw  some  most  illuminating  sidelights  on  the 
high  school.  His  boys  arid  girls  are  sure  to  go  back  to  him, 
particularly  during  their  first  term,  with  interesting  comments 
on  things  "  at  high."  Weaknesses  immediately  evident  to 
their  keen  eyes  are  analyzed  with  all  the  intolerance  of  youth, 
and  usually  with  surprising  accuracy.  The  high  school 
principal  whose  mind  is  open  to  possibilities  of  improvement 
in  his  own  school  will  cordially  welcome  the  suggestions  and 
criticisms  that  he  can  never  hear  save  through  his  confrere 
in  the  lower  school. 

Visits  and  Reports  between  the  Schools.  —  Nor  should 
the  grammar  school  principal  do  all  of  the  visiting.  The 
high  school  principal  who  has  never  visited  the  grammar 
schools  of  his  district  will  be  surprised  at  the  good  results  of 
systematic  visits  to  those  who  are  preparing  his  raw  material. 
He  will  be  much  less  likely  to  blame  the  lower  school  for  the 
obvious  shortcomings  of  its  product  after  he  has  visited  its 
classes  and  come  into  personal  contact  with  its  problems. 
The  pupils  who  are  to  go  to  the  high  school  will  feel  that 
they  have  a  friend  in  their  new  principal  if  he  has  visited 
them  in  their  earlier  habitat.  This  sense  of  familiarity  will 
impart  a  confidence  that  can  be  developed  only  after  much 
longer  contact  within  the  high  school  itself.  It  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  surest  ways  to  guard  against  the  terrific  loss  during 
the  first  term  of  high  school.  If  the  principal  has  the  con- 
fidence of  the  pupils,  which  he  can  get  better  from  even  a 
slight  previous  acquaintance,  he  can  more  effectually  guard 
them  against  the  danger  of  losing  step  with  the  procession 
during  their  first  month  or  two  in  the  new  and  strange  envi- 
ronment. 

The  grammar  school  and  the  high  school  are  owned  and 
financed  by  the  same  public;  they  are  working  with  the  same 
boys  and  girls  for  the  same  ends.  Each  has  a  point  of  view 
different  from  the  other;  each  has  information  that  would 


1 88  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

be  valuable  to  the  other.  Neither  can  do  its  best  work  until 
it  is  brought  into  the  most  harmonious  cooperation  with  the 
other.  Very  naturally  the  grammar  school  expects  the  high 
school  to  take  the  initiative  in  establishing  the  most  cordial 
relations.  The  high  school  should  profit  by  its  own  trials  in 
dealing  with  the  few  colleges  that  stand  aloof  in  their  dignified 
pedantry,  and  lead  the  way  in  establishing  the  most  friendly 
cooperation  with  the  grammar  school. 

RELATION  BETWEEN  THE  HIGH;  SCHOOLS  AND 
THE  COLLEGES.  —  Relations  between  the  high  school 
and  the  college  are  happily  becoming  better.  Much  remains 
to  be  done  before  they  are  satisfactory,  but  the  fine  spirit  of 
a  few  of  the  greatest  institutions  of  higher  education  is  making 
it  possible  for  any  pupil  properly  prepared  to  profit  by  college 
advantages.  The  evil  within  the  high  school  of  a  curriculum 
based  on  college  preparatory  ideals  is  one  that  for  many 
years  to  come  will  continue  to  limit  its  service.  The  petty 
demands  of  some  institutions,  particularly  of  the  women's 
colleges  of  the  East,  will  suggest  to  progressive  principals 
the  desirability  of  absent  treatment.  The  whole  question, 
however,  is  one  in  which  the  individual  principal  is  so  well- 
nigh  helpless  that  he  can  have  little  hope  for  improvement  in 
conditions  save  from  the  national  commission  that  is  en- 
deavoring to  bring  about  more  satisfactory  relations.1 

DISCIPLINE.  Successful  Discipline  depends  on  Under- 
standing the  Adolescent.  —  By  no  single  criterion  is  the 
efficiency  of  school  administration  more  frequently  judged 
than  by  its  discipline.  Like  the  social  worker  the  good  dis- 
ciplinarian aims  at  the  prevention  rather  than  the  cure  of 
evil.  The  secret  of  preventing  the  necessity  of  discipline 
lies  in  building  up  the  right  spirit  in  the  school.  To  do  this 
in  a  high  school  demands  a  sympathetic  understanding  of 

1  The  present  writer  has  discussed  the  evils  of  college  domination  of  the  high 
schools  in  Democracy's  High  School,  Educational  Monograph  Series,  Houghton 
Mifflin  &  Co. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       189 

the  peculiarities  of  the  adolescent.  The  appeals  of  previous 
years  are  no  longer  efficacious.  Insistence  upon  orders  as 
such  only  arouses  antagonism.  The  adolescent  wants  to 
see  the  reason  for  the  rules  and  directions  given,  he  wishes  to 
feel  himself  part  of  a  cooperating  group.  He  is  profoundly 
sensitive  to  public  opinion.  Hence  he  will  usually  join  en- 
thusiastically in  any  scheme  that  asks  his  help  in  doing  the 
things  that  are  clearly  for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  sentiment  of  the  school  favors  disorder 
and  lionizes  the  wrongdoer,  the  discipline  becomes  a  pitched 
battle  between  the  administration  and  the  student  body. 

Public  Sentiment  of  the  School  the  most  Important 
Factor.  —  It  makes  little  difference  what  system  is  used  so 
long  as  it  enlists  genuine  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  stu- 
dents. A  so-called  self-government  scheme  has  no  merits 
that  will  solve  the  problem  of  discipline  if  the  spirit  of  the 
school  is  not  right.  Elaborate  organizations  of  a  legislative 
or  judicial  character  are  of  questionable  value.  The  one  es- 
sential is  the  development  of  an  enthusiastic  loyalty  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  school  that  will  express  an  unequivocal 
disapproval  of  anything  harmful  to  its  welfare. 

In  securing  this  spirit  the  administration  should  never 
abrogate  its  rightful  authority.  It  is  justly  held  responsible 
to  the  community  for  satisfactory  results,  and  it  cannot  se- 
cure these  unless  its  decisions  are  final.  Moreover,  the  loss 
of  a  wholesome  respect  for  this  authority  on  the  part  of  the 
student  body  is  absolutely  fatal.  The  autocratic  rule  of  a 
martinet  is  much  more  conducive  to  wholesome  school  work 
than  the  loose  and  vacillating  government  of  a  principal  whose 
authority  the  pupils  do  not  respect.  Schemes  of  self-govern- 
ment in  a  weakling's  hands  speedily  become  a  huge  joke, 
and  the  discipline  becomes  a  school  of  petty  politics. 

Gradual  Introduction  of  Student  Participation  in  School 
Government.  —  Beginning,  however,  with  a  school  well  in 
hand,  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  introduce  student  partici- 


190  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

pation  in  the  responsibilities  of  discipline.  The  habitual 
appeal  to  the  better  instincts  of  a  class  when  a  teacher  is 
absent  is  one  easy  approach  that  is  familiar  to  all.  The  ap- 
pointment of  a  student  who  is  a  real  leader  to  take  charge  of 
the  assembly  or  to  arrange  certain  details  for  graduation  or 
for  a  school  function,  or  an  invitation  to  students  by  classes 
or  groups  to  elect  representatives  to  cooperate  with  the  faculty 
for  certain  ends  will  prepare  the  way  for  the  gradual  assump- 
tion of  certain  functions  of  discipline  by  the  students.  The 
moment  that  some  of  these  cooperative  activities  are  success- 
ful is  the  one  for  further  extension  of  the  plan.  "  We  have 
succeeded  in  this.  Can  we  do  the  next  thing  ?  "  Such  an 
appeal  is  sure  of  a  hearty  and  genuine  response.  "  Is  it  safe 
for  the  school  to  remove  teachers  from  police  duty  in  corridors, 
lunch  room,  assembly,  and  study  hall  ?  "  Any  student  body 
that  is  permeated  by  a  wholesome  community  spirit  will 
instantly  assure  the  principal  that  it  is.  This  does  not  mean 
that  all  of  these  responsibilities  should  be  thrown  upon  the 
pupils  at  once,  nor  that  the  principal  should  start  such  a  sys- 
tem and  then  leave  it  to  run  itself.  A  much  better  plan 
would  be  to  take  one  problem,  for  example  the  lunch  room, 
and  see  how  well  the  students  can  manage  it.  "  Men  and 
women  are  accustomed  to  eat  without  police  surveillance. 
Eating  is  a  social  function,  where  we  meet  our  friends  with- 
out restraint.  Suppose  we  as  a  school  assume  full  respon- 
sibility for  the  order  in  the  lunch  room  and  for  the  appearance 
of  the  room  after  we  have  finished."  When  one  such  respon- 
sibility is  satisfactorily  met,  another  should  be  assumed  if 
possible.  The  spirit  of  cooperation,  like  a  muscle,  gains 
strength  by  exercise.  The  power  of  public  opinion  is  much 
more  compelling  than  any  rules  that  can  be  made.  If  the 
sentiment  of  the  school  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  right 
action,  there  are  few  boys  or  girls  who  will  stand  against  it. 

Nothing  does  more  to  focalize  this  wholesome  public  senti- 
ment than  a  sense  of  students  and  faculty  working  together 


T/ic  Organization  of  tJie  High  School        191 

for  a  common  end.  As  the  student  government  develops,  a 
representative  organization  becomes  necessary.  Problems  of 
evident  importance  to  the  school  should  be  freely  discussed 
by  this  body,  and  there  should  be  ample  opportunity  for  the 
representatives  to  carry  back  to  their  respective  groups  the 
ideas  of  the  central  body.  The  attitude  of  mind  that  sets  a 
whole  student  body  to  discussing  such  a  problem  as  "  how 
can  we  eliminate  unnecessary  tardiness,"  is  in  itself  most 
wholesome  and  will  go  far  toward  securing  the  desired 
result. 

Social  and  Political  Reasons  for  Student  Participation  in 
School  Government.  —  An  experience  in  a  school  where  the 
cooperation  of  the  students  has  been  successfully  enlisted  il- 
lustrates the  effectiveness  of  their  assistance.  The  manners 
of  the  pupils  at  the  daily  assembly  in  this  school  had  become 
so  careless  that  the  principal  announced  one  Thursday 
morning  that  the  school  would  meet  in  the  hall  at  the  close 
of  school  on  the  following  Monday  to  practice  for  the  assembly. 
The  officers  of  the  Student's  Association  took  the  matter  up 
that  day  with  each  group  in  the  study  hall  where  pupils  not 
in  recitation  \vere  seated.  On  Friday  and  Monday  mornings 
the  assembly  manners  were  perfect.  The  president  of  the 
Student's  Association  spoke  for  the  student  body  Monday 
morning  and  requested  the  principal  to  postpone  the  rehearsal 
that  he  had  announced.  She  requested  that  the  students  be 
given  an  opportunity  to  show  that  they  could  improve  their 
behavior  without  any  artificial  means  being  employed  to  re- 
mind them  of  the  proprieties  of  the  assembly.  Of  course,  the 
principal  granted  the  request. 

In  this  school  the  study  hall  in  which  from  250  to  400  pupils 
are  seated  all  the  time  is  conducted  entirely  by  the  students. 
One  teacher  who  has  peculiar  fitness  for  the  task  has  full 
supervision  of  this  and  all  other  student  activities.  She  is 
not  required  to  do  any  teaching,  but  even  at  that  a  consider- 
able saving  is  effected,  as  the  study  hall  alone  formerly  re- 


192  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

quired  the  constant  supervision  of  two  teachers.  Not  only 
these  two  teachers  but  all  others  as  well  are  now  released 
from  police  duty,  and  the  spirit  of  the  school  is  greatly  im- 
proved as  a  result  of  the  absence  of  a  jarring  relation  between 
teachers  and  pupils. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  the  improvement  of  the  be- 
havior and  the  solution  of  problems  of  discipline  are  not  the 
chief  reasons  for  enlisting  the  aid  of  students  in  the  discipline 
of  the  school.  A  recognition  of  the  school  as  a  social  institu- 
tion forming  the  habits  of  social  thought  of  its  young  citizens 
will  furnish  ample  reason  for  developing  in  them  the  habit 
of  cooperation.  If  they  were  citizens  of  a  despotism,  they 
should  be  governed  by  a  despot  in  order  that  they  might 
develop  the  habit  of  immediate  and  unquestioning  obedience. 
Inasmuch  as  they  are  citizens  of  a  republic  that  depends  for 
its  success  upon  the  thoughtful  cooperation  of  its  citizens  it 
seems  clear  that  in  the  school  where  they  have  an  unquestioned 
community  interest  they  should  acquire  the  habit  of  thinking 
in  terms  of  community  welfare. 

Athletics,  dramatics,  the  school  paper,  clubs  devoted  to 
certain  studies  or  interests,  all  form  a  point  of  contact  for 
student  and  faculty  cooperation.  One  reason  why  the 
athletics  present  such  a  vexatious  problem  in  many  a  school 
is  that  the  school  is  run  as  a  despotism  and  the  athletics  as 
more  or  less  of  a  democracy.  The  two  spirits  do  not  mix,  and 
the  school  has  something  of  the  same  sort  of  troubles  that  arise 
when  primitive  peoples  who  have  not  learned  to  assume  the 
responsibilities  of  democracy  attempt  to  form  a  democratic 
government.  More  democracy  may  not  be  the  cure  for  the 
evils  of  so-called  democracy  in  Mexico  and  China,  but  in  the 
public  high  school  of  an  American  town  where  the  govern- 
ment of  the  city,  the  state,  and  the  nation  are  democratic, 
where  the  social  traditions  for  centuries  past  are  democratic, 
it  would  seem  that  a  properly  guided  democracy  is  the  natural 
and  the  appropriate  form  of  government. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        193 

HUMANIZING  THE  SCHOOL.  —  A  democratic  spirit 
that  secures  the  interest  and  cooperation  of  the  students  will 
go  far  toward  humanizing  the  school.  In  our  large  city  schools 
it  is  often  extremely  difficult  to  avoid  so  much  system  that 
the  whole  school  becomes  mechanical.  The  necessity  of 
impartiality  leads  to  the  statement  of  definite  rules  whose 
invariable  application  often  works  needless  hardship.  "  Up- 
holding the  standard  "  :  easily  becomes  the  fetish  of  a  small 
mind,  and  the  application  of  a  rule  or  a  precedent  is  an  easy 
way  out  of  a  difficulty  for  an  administrator  of  the  martinet 
type.  In  a  large  city  school  the  principal  cannot  possibly 
know  personally  any  considerable  proportion  of  his  students. 
Home  conditions,  financial  limitations,  special  abilities  and 
blind  spots,  ambitions,  vocation  opportunities,  —  these  and 
many  other  considerations  demand  individual  treatment  if 
the  school  is  to  educate  individuals  as  they  are  instead  of 
educating  the  "  average  "  boy  or  girl,  who  of  course  does  not 
exist.  Then  there  is  the  longing  for  sympathetic  understand- 
ing and  for  the  counsel  of  older  people  that  gives  the  teacher 
of  the  adolescent  his  greatest  opportunity.  The  organization 
of  the  high  school  whereby  a  pupil  recites  to  four  or  five  differ- 
ent teachers  every  term  and  possibly  to  an  entirely  different 
group  the  next  term  or  year  makes  it  very  difficult  to  human- 
ize a  large  school  so  as  to  meet  these  evident  needs. 

Student  Advisor  System.  —  Any  system  of  advisorship 
is  open  to  the  objection  of  mechanizing  a  function  that  in  its 
very  nature  is  intimately  personal,  but  in  the  large  school 
such  a  system,  plus  those  individual  confidences  that  are 
sure  to  grow  up  in  a  more  or  less  haphazard  way,  is  better 
than  the  chance  adjustments  alone.  In  these  important 
relationships  that  often  mean  much  more  to  the  pupil  than 
any  or  all  of  his  studies,  the  spirit  of  the  school  is  the  most 
important  single  factor.  Nearly  all  teachers  are  glad  of  an 
opportunity  to  give  themselves  to  their  pupils.  Where  the 

1  See  "The  Worship  of  the  Standard,"  W.  II.  Mcarns,  Proc.  X.  E.  A.,  1012. 


194  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

spirit  is  right,  pupils  respond  cordially  to  the  helpful  attitude 
of  the  teachers.  A  sour,  censorious  spirit  on  the  part  of  the 
administrator,  however,  is  sure  to  spoil  the  good  fellowship 
between  pupils  and  faculty  that  might  be  the  most  potent 
influence  for  good  in  real  education  of  his  pupils.1 

ADAPTING  THE  SCHOOL  TO  COMMUNITY  NEEDS. 
-  The  administration  of  a  high  school  must  keep  the  school 
growing  along  all  the  lines  in  which  it  can  be  of  service  to  its 
pupils  and  its  community.  It  is  precisely  because  the  vast 
majority  of  high  school  administrators  have  failed  at  this 
point  that  there  has  been  so  violent  an  outcry  from  shrewd 
observers  within  the  last  few  years.  The  high  school  has 
been  following  the  traditions  it  inherited  from  the  English 
so-called  public  school,  which,  of  course,  is  not  a  public  school 
at  all,  until  it  is  being  jolted  into  an  awakening  to  its  demo- 
cratic obligation  to  the  community  that  is  paying  its  bills. 
So  the  tendency  to-day  is  strongly  toward  a  broadened  cur- 
riculum and  a  more  liberal  administration  of  the  curriculum 
that  shall  enable  the  school  to  give  the  various  kinds  of  train- 
ing that  its  largely  increased  clientage  demands. 

The  Changed  Problem.  —  It  is  needless  to  do  more  than 
mention  the  changed  conditions  that  have  brought  about  the 
tremendous  change  in  the  problem  of  the  high  school.  When 
it  first  grew  out  of  the  old  academy,  its  chief  service  was  the 
secondary  training  of  those  who  were  to  enter  the  professions. 
The  toilers  gained  the  mysteries  of  their  various  crafts  from 
their  immediate  environment.  The  little  red  schoolhouse 
taught  the  rudiments,  and  only  the  more  fortunate  of  the 
future  farmers,  mechanics,  artisans,  and  tradesmen  had  a 
year  or  so  at  the  academy  or  high  school.  Nearly  everybody 
believed,  as  did  the  Committee  of  Ten  as  late  as  1894,  that  the 
best  education  for  the  college-bound  youth  was  the  best  for 
everybody.  So  the  whole  problem  was  simple.  The  revolu- 

1  See  "Advisory  Systems  in  High  Schools,"  J.  W.  Raymer,  Ed.  Rev., 
December,  1912. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        195 

tion  in  our  industry  and  in  our  living  conditions  has  now 
brought  the  high  school  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  pro- 
viding secondary  training  for  everybody.  The  real  leaders 
of  our  educational  policy  see  this  clearly,  and  the  adminis- 
trators of  high  schools  must  work  out  the  problem  or  go  the 
way  of  the  discards  of  the  craft  into  truck  farming  and  the 
vending  of  life  insurance. 

Study  of  Conditions  Essential  as  a  Basis  for  Change  in 
Procedure.  —  This  is  the  day  of  surveys.  As  never  before, 
changes  in  procedure  are  based  upon  a  careful  study  of  con- 
ditions. So  the  high  school  should  base  its  adjustment  to 
the  demands  of  its  community  upon  accurate  data  rather 
than  upon  general  theories.  There  are  certain  constants 
such  as  proper  attention  to  physical  needs,  training  in  the 
use  of  the  mother  tongue,  and  in  the  fundamentals  of  citizen- 
ship, about  which  there  is  no  dispute.  Beyond  these  the  school 
must  be  in  a  continual  process  of  adjustment  based  on  a  study, 
first,  of  its  students,  and,  second,  of  the  community  it  serves. 

It  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  describe  certain  types 
of  pupils  that  are  found  in  every  high  school.  The  studious 
boy  or  girl  finds  ample  provision  in  our  present  academic 
regime.  The  motor-minded  youths  with  infinite  varieties  of 
instincts,  ambitions,  and  possibilities  are  the  ones  who  pre- 
sent the  serious  problem.  The  coming  of  the  vocational 
counselor  will  help  to  determine  what  the  school  can  do  for 
them.  Minute  discussion  of  details  under  this  topic  would  be 
out  of  place.  The  emphasis  needs  to  be  laid,  however,  on  the 
duty  of  the  high  school  administration  to  study  this  problem 
from  the  point  of  view  of  its  pupils. 

The  Community  Element.  —  The  study  of  the  other  ele- 
ment in  the  problem  —  the  community  —  has  many  aspects. 
Americans  so  easily  move  from  place  to  place  that  the  im- 
mediate environment  is  no  bar  to  the  vocational  aspirations 
of  any  boy  or  girl.  Financial  limitations,  however,  will  often 
make  it  necessary  to  determine  which  of  several  types  of  train- 


196          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ing  any  given  school  shall  afford.  Superintendent  Spaulding, 
formerly  of  Newton,  Massachusetts,  has  given  some  most 
valuable  suggestions  1  of  methods  of  approaching  this  problem. 
Among  other  things  he  shows  the  relative  success  in  the  high 
school  of  the  pupils  from  the  various  grammar  schools,  the 
cost  of  instruction  in  various  subjects,  the  comparative  num- 
ber of  pupils  receiving  training  in  various  lines,  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  workers  in  the  principal  skilled  industries  of 
Boston  as  shown  by  the  last  census.  In  discussing  the  problem 
of  adjusting  education  to  society's  need  of  service  he  says: 

''Just  what  we  mean  by  preparing  adequately  our  secondary 
school  pupils  as  a  whole  to  meet  the  wide  range  of  legitimate 
service  that  society  is  demanding  of  the  oncoming  generation 
can  be  shown  more  clearly  if  we  direct  our  attention  to  a  lim- 
ited portion  of  the  field  of  secondary  education  and  to  a  few 
types  of  service  that  society  demands.  In  the  Newton  Voca- 
tional School  the  boys  are  learning  certain  trades,  known  as 
machine-shop,  pattern-making,  electrical,  cabinet-making, 
and  printing.  The  proportionate  distribution  of  the  total 
number  of  boys  in  the  school  among  these  several  trades  is 
represented  by  the  solid  black  bars  on  Chart  IX.  These 
bars  are  drawn  on  the  scale  of  one  hundred ;  that  is,  the  total 
of  the  four  bars  equals  100  per  cent,  or  the  total  number  of 
boys  in  the  school ;  of  these  44  per  cent  are  learning  machine- 
shop  and  pattern-making  trades,  25  per  cent  electrical  trades, 
and  so  on. 

"Similarly  there  is  represented  on  this  chart  by  crossed 
bars  the  distribution  of  workers  in  the  principal  skilled  indus- 
tries of  Boston  as  shown  by  the  last  census ;  for  example, 
the  chart  shows  that  30  per  cent  of  such  workers  are  engaged 
in  the  metal  trades  and  27  per  cent  in  printing  and  publishing. 
Note  that  each  school  trade  is  represented  on  the  chart  im- 
mediately above  that  actual  trade  for  which  the  school  trade  is 
preparing  its  pupils. 

"  This  chart  is  of  no  value  in  itself ;  it  has  been  prepared  and 
is  presented  solely  to  show  the  type  of  chart,  or  charts,  that 
both  the  educational  and  industrial,  also  the  commercial 

1  Education,  December,  1913. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School        197 

and  professional,  worlds  need.  Similar  to  this  chart,  there 
should  be  constructed  a  chart,  or  rather  a  series  of  charts, 
based  on  adequate  data,  that  would  show,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  proportionate  distribution  of  workers  engaged  in  industrial, 
commercial,  and  professional  pursuits,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 


BCK5«  TRAINING 


WGE  EARNLR5! 


SUBJECT 


the  proportionate  distribution  of  pupils,  including  those  in 
private  as  well  as  those  in  public  institutions,  among  various 
courses  of  training  that  definitely  prepare  for  different  types 
of  service.  Such  charts  should  include  the  data  gathered 
from  a  large  area ;  all  New  England  would  not  be  too  large  an 


198  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

area,  anything  less  than  the  state  would  be  too  small,  for  the 
output  of  any  school  may  easily  adjust  itself  to  the  demands 
for  service  in  a  region  extending  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
community,  even  though  that  community  be  a  large  city,  in 
which  the  school  is  located. 

"  It  would  be  highly  desirable  to  have  a  series  of  charts  of  this 
type  national  in  their  scope,  and  also  a  considerable  number  of 
series,  each  covering  a  section  of  country  somewhat  unified 
from  the  industrial  and  commercial  standpoint ;  state  charts 
would  serve  fairly  well  if  all  states,  or  all  states  in  a  unified 
section,  were  charted. 

"  Just  how  could  such  charts  be  used  to  advantage  ?  Let  us 
illustrate  concretely  with  this  chart.  Suppose  this  chart  rep- 
resented conditions  in  the  skilled  industries  and  in  the  trade 
schools  of  all  kinds,  not  of  Boston  and  Newton,  but  of  all  New 
England.  It  would  show  to  the  trade  schools  throughout 
that  region  that  training  for  the  metal  and  wood-working 
trades  was  being  relatively  overdone,  that  training  for  the 
electrical  trades  was  being  enormously  overdone,  that  training 
for  printing  and  publishing  was  underdone,  while  no  training 
at  all  was  being  provided  for  the  remaining  trades,  boot  and 
shoe,  sheet  metal,  and  marble  and  stone.  It  would  then  be 
incumbent  on  the  schools  to  bring  about  a  different  distribu- 
tion among  their  pupils  just  entering  on  their  training,  dis- 
couraging entrance  on  trades  likely  to  be  oversupplied,  and 
encouraging  entrance  on  trades  likely  to  be  undersupplied 
with  workers,  perhaps  establishing  new  courses  of  training  in 
order  to  turn  out  a  skilled  product  capable  of  rendering  the 
greatest  service. 

"  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  the  value  of  these  charts, 
to  be  used  in  this  way,  would  depend  on  their  up-to-dateness. 
In  their  educational  features  they  should  be  revised  every 
year,  for  the  effort  of  many  schools  to  adjust  their  training  to 
the  demands  for  service  might,  if  long  unchecked,  result  in  a 
maladjustment  as  bad  as  that  which  they  had  sought  to  cor- 
rect ;  for  example,  noting  one  year  that  training  for  electrical 
trades  was  being  greatly  overdone,  while  that  for  printing  and 
publishing  was  being  underdone,  the  correction  of  this  malad- 
justment might  soon  result  in  a  reversal  of  these  conditions. 
In  their  industrial,  commercial,  and  professional  features,  these 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       199 

charts  should  be  revised  as  often  as  the  necessary  data  become 
available. 

"  If  the  state  and  the  nation  are  really  in  earnest  about  voca- 
tional education  and  vocational  guidance,  the  incalculable 
value  of  charts  like  these,  both  to  education  and  to  indus- 
trial, commercial,  and  professional  interests,  becomes  at  once 
apparent." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  Superintendent 
Spaulding's  study  deals  with  the  purchasing  power  of  a  dollar 
as  expressed  in  the  number  of  pupil-hours  of  recitation  it 
would  buy.  He  discovered  that  a  dollar  bought  5.9  pupil- 
hours  recitations  in  Greek,  23.8  in  French,  19.2  in  English, 
41.7  in  vocal  music.  Here  is  an  interesting  commentary  on 
the  moot  question  of  educational  values.  Every  school  ad- 
ministrator is  obliged  to  think  of  the  financial  aspects  of  his 
problem,  and  doubtless  many  will  agree  with  Superintendent 
Spaulding  when  he  says:  "  I  was  convinced,  by  very  con- 
crete and  quite  local  considerations,  that  when  the  obligations 
of  the  past  year  expired,  we  ought  to  purchase  no  more  Greek 
instruction  at  5.9  pupil-recitations  for  a  dollar.  So  this 
year,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Newton  high 
school,  we  are  buying  no  Greek;  until  last  year's  price  can 
be  materially  reduced,  we  shall  continue  to  invest  in  other 
subjects." 

The  Cooperation  of  Industry  Necessary  to  the  Full- 
est Service  of  the  Secondary  School.  —  It  may  be  ob- 
jected that  this  view  of  the  problem  contemplates  no  dis- 
tinction between  the  high  school  and  the  trade  school.  The 
obvious  answer  is  that  if  the  public  is  to  provide  for  the  sec- 
ondary education  of  all  of  its  children,  it  must  of  necessity  in- 
clude the  elements  of  the  various  lines  of  activity  required 
by  any  proportionately  large  number  of  pupils.  If  it  is  to 
require  school  attendance  to  the  age  of  sixteen,  as  now  seems 
probable,  it  must  recognize  the  various  types  of  mind  that 
become  evident  during  the  first  half  of  adolescence.  In  this 


2OO          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

extension  of  the  scope  of  the  school,  industry  must  cooperate. 
Such  schemes  as  the  half-time  plan  at  the  University  of  Cin- 
cinnati and  the  schools  of  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  will 
doubtless  play  an  increasingly  large  part  in  this  readjustment. 

This  Broader  Service  demands  Open-mindedness  of 
the  Principal.  —  In  this  broader  service  the  administration 
will  find  numerous  opportunities.  Every  school  tries  to  keep 
track  of  the  progress  of  its  individual  pupils  term  by  term. 
Every  teacher  is  in  some  sense  a  personal  and  vocational 
adviser.  What  is  to  be  done  with  the  pupil  whom  the  course 
he  is  taking  fails  to  reach?  To  fail  at  this  point  is  to  fail  in 
the  most  important  single  duty  of  a  principal.  The  distin- 
guished success  of  a  few  pupils  in  college  becomes  a  reproach 
upon  a  public  school  that  can  show  nothing  but  ignominious 
dismissal  or  crowding  out  for  pupils  of  a  different  type.  The 
principal  who  year  after  year  permits  teachers  to  fail  from 
20  to  40  per  cent  of  their  pupils  would  speedily  walk  the 
streets  in  search  of  a  job  if,  as  superintendent  of  a  manufac- 
turing plant,  he  were  throwing  into  the  scrap  heap  a  similar 
percentage  of  his  raw  material. 

This  larger  adjustment  of  the  school  to  the  needs  of  its 
pupils  and  to  the  broader  service  of  the  community  will  not 
be  performed  without  the  principal's  leadership.  Once  the 
spirit  of  social  service  is  developed  in  a  school,  there  will  not 
be  lacking  a  wealth  of  suggestion  and  self-devotion  on  the 
part  of  the  faculty.  Leadership,  however,  it  must  have,  and 
leadership  it  cannot  receive  from  the  rightful  leader  unless 
his  conception  of  the  place  of  the  school  in  society  is  broadened 
by  a  vision  that  reaches  far  beyond  the  traditions  of  mere 
inculcation  of  knowledge. 

So  the  progressive  administrator  will  not  display  the  dog- 
matic hostility  to  innovations  that  too  often  characterizes 
the  schoolman  who  has  passed  his  fortieth  birthday.  Such 
suggestions  as  Commissioner  Claxton  has  recently  made 1 

1  School  Review,  March,  1914. 


TJie  Organization  of  the  Pligh  School       201 

of  a  longer  school  day  and  a  longer  school  year;  the  sixty- 
minute  period,  half  of  which  is  given  to  preparation  of  the 
lesson;  the  vocational  guidance  scheme  of  Principal  Davis 
of  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan;  the  Gary  scheme,  the  six-and- 
six  plan ;  part-time  classes,  —  all  these  will  be  given  thought- 
ful and  sympathetic  consideration.  Probably  none  of  them 
will  be  adopted  entire.  Few  will  fail  to  furnish  suggestions 
that  can  be  adapted  to  local  conditions. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  AND  THE  TEACHER. —As  is  the 
principal,  so  is  the  school.  The  spirit  of  his  administration 
is  sure  to  be  reflected  by  both  faculty  and  students.  A  heavy 
responsibility  of  leadership  rests  upon  him,  and  with  it  splen- 
did possibilities  of  service.  His  relationship  with  his  faculty 
will  not  end  with  organization  and  discipline,  but  will  be  felt 
in  every  classroom  if  the  school  is  not  too  large.  It  stands 
to  reason  that  he  can  seldom  lay  claim  to  scholarship  in  all 
the  lines  of  study  in  the  curriculum.  If  he  is  wise,  he  will  be 
very  modest  in  asserting  himself  along  purely  scholarly  lines, 
because,  if  for  no  other  reason,  a  frank  admission  of  the  ob- 
vious fact  that  he  knows  less  about  a  subject  than  the  special- 
ist who  is  teaching  it  is  much  more  conducive  to  confidence 
than  the  assumption  of  knowledge  he  does  not  possess.  In 
one  particular,  however,  he  may  justly  question  the  specialist 
on  his  own  ground.  As  principal  he  must  have  a  very  definite 
idea  why  every  subject  is  taught.  Too  often  the  specialist 
has  never  asked  himself  this  vital  question.  He  has  studied 
his  subject  because  he  likes  it.  In  it  he  finds  the  scholar's 
joy  of  achievement.  Only  too  often  he  is  teaching  his  subject 
rather  than  his  boys  and  girls.  Here  should  enter  the  prin- 
cipal as  an  enacting  clause  for  that  particular  specialist. 

This  is  often  a  difficult,  sometimes  an  impossible,  task. 
The  unfortunate  tendency  of  scholarship  to  view  learning  as 
an  end  in  itself,  —  to  forget  the  distinction  between  knowl- 
edge and  wisdom,  the  tendency  of  teachers  to  live  isolated 
lives,  the  cloistered  vanities  of  intellectual  Pharisaism,  all 

UBRARf 


202  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

these  make  certain  types  of  the  "  schoolmarm  "  —of  both 
sexes  —  not  infrequently  a  pretty  difficult  proposition.  Hap- 
pily, the  proportion  of  such  incrusted  personifications  of  text- 
book learning  are  usually  very  small  compared  with  the 
whole  faculty.  Sometimes  one  can  be  made  an  office  assist- 
ant, sometimes  a  progressive  school  board  or  a  pension  fund 
comes  to  the  rescue,  sometimes  such  an  infliction  has  to  be 
endured  as  a  limitation,  like  chronic  appendicitis  when  the 
surgeons  refuse  to  operate. 

Who  shall  Pass? — -An  inevitable  point  of  contact  on 
this  question  of  the  purpose  of  the  various  subjects  in  the 
course  will  come  in  the  grading  of  pupils.  Professor  George 
Drayton  Strayer  *  of  Columbia  University  has  made  a  study 
of  the  markings  given  by  various  teachers  in  a  subject  and  of 
those  given  by  the  same  teacher  at  different  times.  He  has 
shown  that  the  standards  of  different  teachers  as  well  as  those 
of  the  same  teacher  at  different  times  are  exceedingly  variable. 
Who  shall  pass  and  who  shall  fail  ?  What  is  to  be  the  attitude 
of  the  administration  on  this  question  that  is  most  vital  to 
the  pupils  ?  What  is  the  school  to  do  with  a  condition  that 
shows  such  an  appalling  percentage  of  failure  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  New  York  Regents'  examinations  ?  The  report  for 
January  and  June,  1913,  shows  a  failure  of  28.8  per  cent  in  all 
subjects.  In  all  Latin  subjects  the  failures  were  34.4  per 
cent;  in  all  mathematics,  32.9;  in  plane  geometry,  40.2;  in 
science,  34.6;  in  commercial  subjects,  37.2.  Yet  the  passing 
mark  is  only  60  per  cent.  Pupils  are  not  permitted  to  take 
the  examinations  unless  they  have  spent  the  specified  time  in 
class,  and  the  majority  of  first-year  subjects  have  been  elimi- 
nated from  the  examinations.  All  of  these  considerations 
would  tend  to  make  the  percentage  of  failure  lower. 

Limitation  of  the  Teacher  whose  Chief  Interest  is  in  his 
Subject.  —  If  these  figures  represent  the  high  school  failures 
throughout  the  country,  it  would  seem  that  one  of  two  things 
1  Education,  December.  1913. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       203 

is  true :  either  the  tasks  set  for  the  pupils  are  badly  adapted 
or  the  teaching  is  poor.  The  schools  of  New  York  State  are, 
of  course,  compelled  to  follow  the  Regents'  courses  and  take 
the  Regents'  examinations,  but  schools  under  a  less  rigorous 
regime  should  make  it  their  business  to  see  that  their  balance 
sheets  do  not  show  nearly  30  per  cent  failures.  This  is  a 
plain  duty  of  the  administration,  one  that  will  not  infrequently 
bring  him  into  sharp  and  decisive  controversy  with  teachers 
who  are  unduly  strenuous  in  their  devotion  to  their  subjects. 
"  I  always  discover  in  the  first  two  weeks  which  of  my  pupils 
can  do  algebra,"  says  one  such  teacher,  "  and  then  I  teach 
them.  Usually  they  are  about  25  per  cent  of  the  class.  I 
frankly  tell  the  others  that  if  they  can't  do  the  work,  they 
must  take  the  consequences."  If  every  pupil  is  to  be  com- 
pelled to  take  algebra,  a  requirement  that  has  little  but  tradi- 
tion to  support  it,  this  teacher  should  be  forced  to  change  his 
practice  or  leave  the  profession.  His  case  is  in  much  greater 
need  of  discipline  by  the  principal  of  the  school  than  is  that 
of  a  boy  who  frankly  refuses  to  prepare  his  lessons,  because 
the  boy  is  injuring  only  himself,  while  the  teacher,  on  his  own 
confession,  is  injuring  75  per  cent  of  the  pupils  assigned  him. 
The  Purpose  of  Teaching  a  Given  Subject  should  determine 
Content  and  Method. — In  schools  that  have  a  fair  degree 
of  freedom  as  to  the  interpretation  of  any  unit  of  the 
course  there  is  an  opportunity  for  the  principal  not  only 
to  see  that  pupils  are  not  given  work  that  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  majority  of  the  class,  but  also  to  see  that  the  subjects 
really  contribute  something  of  value  after  they  are  learned. 
The  following  extracts  from  an  editorial  by  M.  V.  O'Shea  in 
the  School  Review  for  January,  1913,  indicates  the  progress 
that  is  now  well  under  way,  but  that  has  by  no  means  reached 
its  goal. 

"It  ought  to  hearten  any  teacher  to  note  the  changes  which 
are  taking  place  in  our  methods  of  teaching,  particularly  in  the 
secondary  school.  The  writer  has  been  observing  the  new 


204  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

order  in  a  high  school  with  which  he  is  well  acquainted.  Five 
years  ago  German  was  taught  to  beginners  in  this  school  very 
largely  from  a  grammatical  textbook.  After  two  years  of 
instruction,  the  typical  pupil  could  read  a  little  classical  Ger- 
man, but  he  could  not  read  even  this  very  readily  or  with 
genuine  enjoyment.  But  to-day,  in  this  same  high  school, 
pupils  are  at  the  outset  introduced  to  spoken  German,  and 
they  are  required  to  speak  it,  to  read  it,  and  to  write  it  almost 
from  the  beginning.  They  are  now  about  as  facile  in  the  use 
of  the  language  after  six  weeks  of  instruction  as  they  formerly 
were  after  two  years  of  grammatical  drill. 

"Five  years  ago  the  pupils  in  English  classes  memorized 
rhetorical  rules,  and  read  over  examples  in  which  they  were 
embodied.  Occasionally  they  would  write  a  theme  in  the 
attempt  to  apply  the  rules  which  they  had  learned.  To-day 
they  are  reading  entire  selections  illustrating  effective  modes 
of  expression,  and  they  are  writing  a  good  deal  with  a  view  to 
expressing  themselves  on  familiar  subjects  in  a  direct,  clear, 
and  pleasing  manner.  Five  years  ago  algebra  was  taught  as 
a  purely  formal,  symbolical  subject.  But  now  there  is  con- 
siderable improvement,  since  pupils  are  constantly  solving 
practical  problems  which  have  a  more  or  less  direct  bearing 
upon  everyday  affairs,  though  we  think  still  further  improve- 
ment can  be  made  in  regard  to  this  subject. 

"We  might  go  through  with  practically  all  of  the  subjects 
taught  in  this  high  school  and  show  radical  and  encouraging 
reform  in  the  way  of  employing  vital  and  effective  methods 
of  teaching.  The  aim  of  making  teaching  go  to  the  mark,  in 
the  sense  that  it  will  enable  the  pupil  without  waste  of  time 
or  energy  to  get  a  subject  as  it  will  be  of  service  in  real  life,  is 
apparently  coming  to  be  accepted  and  generally  practiced  by 
teachers  in  the  high  school." 

An  Illustration  from  History.  —  Perhaps  no  subject  in 
the  curriculum  has  been  worse  taught  than  history.  The 
teacher  has  usually  assigned  so  many  pages  of  the  textbook 
and  been  entirely  satisfied  when  they  have  been  parroted 
back  to  her.  Professor  John  Dewey  has  shown  the  approach 
to  this  subject  in  a  way  that  illustrates  the  duty  of  the  ad- 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       205 

ministration  of  a  school  to  see  that  the  subjects  in  the  cur- 
riculum really  function  in  the  educational  process.  Says 
Professor  Dewey: 1 

"History  is  vital  or  dead  to  the  child  according  as  it  is,  or 
is  not,  presented  from  the  sociological  standpoint.  When 
treated  simply  as  a  record  of  what  has  passed  and  gone,  it 
must  be  mechanical,  because  the  past,  as  the  past,  is  remote. 
Simply  as  the  past  there  is  no  motive  for  attending  to  it.  The 
ethical  value  of  history  teaching  will  be  measured  by  the  extent 
to  which  past  events  are  made  the  means  of  understanding  the 
present,  —  affording  insight  into  what  makes  up  the  structure 
and  working  of  society  to-day.  Existing  social  structure  is  ex- 
ceedingly complex.  It  is  practically  impossible  for  the  child 
to  attack  it  en  masse  and  get  any  definite  mental  image  of  it. 
But  type  phases  of  historical  development  may  be  selected 
which  will  exhibit,  as  through  a  telescope,  the  essential  con- 
stituents of  the  existing  order." 
******** 

"One  reason  historical  teaching  is  usually  not  more  effective 
is  that  the  student  is  set  to  acquire  information  in  such  a  way 
that  no  epochs  or  factors  stand  out  in  his  mind  as  typical ; 
everything  is  reduced  to  the  same  dead  level.  The  way  to 
secure  the  necessary  perspective  is  to  treat  the  past  as  if  it 
were  a  projected  present  with  some  of  its  elements  enlarged." 
******** 

"History  is  equally  available  in  teaching  the  methods  of 
social  progress.  It  is  commonly  stated  that  history  must  be 
studied  from  the  standpoint  of  cause  and  effect.  The  truth  of 
this  statement  depends  upon  its  interpretation.  Social  life 
is  so  complex  and  the  various  parts  of  it  are  so  organically 
related  to  one  another  and  to  the  natural  environment,  that  it 
is  impossible  to  say  that  this  or  that  thing  is  the  cause  of  some 
other  particular  thing.  But  the  study  of  history  can  reveal 
the  main  instruments  in  the  discoveries,  inventions,  new 
modes  of  life,  etc.,  which  have  initiated  the  great  epochs  of 
social  advance ;  and  it  can  present  to  the  child  types  of  the 
main  lines  of  social  progress,  and  can  set  before  him  what  have 

1  Moral  Principals  in  Education,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  p.  36  ff. 


206  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

been  the  chief  difficulties  and  obstructions  in  the  way  of  prog- 
ress. Once  more  this  can  be  done  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  recog- 
nized that  social  forces  in  themselves  are  always  the  same,  — 
that  the  same  kind  of  influences  were  at  work  one  hundred  and 
one  thousand  years  ago  that  are  now  working,  —  and  that 
particular  historical  epochs  afford  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  the  fundamental  forces  work." 

The  Principal  must  visit  Classes.  —  It  follows,  of  course, 
that  if  the  principal  is  to  give  the  proper  direction  to 
the  teaching  in  his  school,  he  must  visit  classes.  He  must 
carry  with  him  a  vital  philosophy  of  education,  a  keen  sense 
of  social  values,  a  clear  vision  of  his  community  and  its  needs, 
as  well  as  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  political,  industrial, 
economic,  and  social  forces  that  are  shaping  our  civilization. 
He  will  not  be  able  to  evaluate  the  methods  of  his  teachers 
unless  he  has  this  broader  view  of  the  place  of  the  school  in  a 
democracy. 

His  discussion  of  the  class  work  must  be  specific.  He  can 
point  out  to  the  younger  members  of  his  faculty  many  faults 
in  technique  that  they  will  be  only  too  glad  to  correct.  He 
should  be  able  to  secure  from  all  those  not  hopelessly  prej- 
udiced some  response  to  his  suggestion  of  the  larger  purpose 
of  their  various  lines  of  instruction.  He  should  make  his 
ideals  clear  in  his  faculty  meetings  and  follow  them  up  with 
frequent  visits  and  with  many  informal  personal  conferences. 
In  the  larger  schools  much  of  this  detail  work  of  supervision 
and  conference  will  have  to  be  done  by  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments. Inevitably,  the  time  of  the  principal  of  one  of  our 
large  city  schools  is  largely  taken  up  in  meeting  a  great  num- 
ber of  people  —  teachers,  pupils,  parents,  and  others  —  who,  in 
certain  relations  with  the  school,  ought  to  meet  the  official 
head  himself.  In  such  schools  the  leadership  of  the  teaching 
force  must  be  exercised  to  a  great  extent  through  the  heads 
of  departments.  This  will  become  much  more  efficient  if 
the  cabinet  system  is  used,  and  policies  are  inaugurated  which 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       207 

represent  the  judgment  of  the  cabinet  rather  than  the  ipse 
dixit  of  the  principal. 

The   Teachers'    Meeting.     It    should   be    Democratic.  - 

The  teachers'  meeting,  also,  can  be  made  a  real  force  in  the 
school.  The  cabinet  is,  or  should  be,  a  representative  body. 
If  the  heads  of  departments  really  discuss  matters  with  their 
teachers  rather  than  lecture  to  them,  they  will  bring  to  this 
cabinet  meeting  the  composite  judgment  of  their  departments. 
The  teachers'  meeting,  on  the  other  hand,  more  nearly  rep- 
resents a  truly  democratic  assembly.  It  may  only  too  easily 
degenerate  into  a  profitless  debating  society  with  a  few  lo- 
quacious performers  in  star  roles.  To  prevent  this  there 
should  always  be  a  very  clear  understanding  when,  and  un- 
der what  conditions,  subjects  are  open  to  general  discussion. 
Matters  of  routine  detail  can  best  be  handled  by  mimeographed 
sheets  of  directions.  These  should  be  directions,  not  sugges- 
tions. Just  what  order  of  procedure  is  to  be  followed  in  re- 
organizing the  school,  for  example,  it  is  the  province  of  the 
administration  to  determine,  with  whatever  previous  counsel 
it  may  seek.  When  the  order  is  issued,  it  should  be  explained 
so  clearly  in  a  teachers'  meeting  that  it  cannot  be  misunder- 
stood, the  explanation  should  be  clinched  by  the  direction 
sheet,  and  then  teachers  should  be  held  as  rigorously  to  the 
letter  of  the  order  as  would  employees  in  any  well-directed 
business. 

But  mere  details  should  occupy  relatively  little  of  the 
time  of  the  teachers'  meetings.  The  principal  who  has  a 
philosophy  of  education  underlying  his  policies  owes  it  to  his 
faculty  to  make  them  understand  his  ideas.  He  will,  there- 
fore, very  frequently  discuss  in  some  detail  the  educational 
questions  involved  in  his  program,  and  he  will  add  a  word  of 
comment  and  interpretation  to  the  incidents  of  the  day's 
work  whenever  he  can  thereby  make  himself  more  clearly 
understood.  But  he  will  carefully  avoid  the  appearance  of 
continual  lecturing,  and  he  will  endeavor  to  call  out  the  best 


208  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  his  faculty.  A  successful  piece  of  work  done  in  the  school 
and  explained  in  the  teachers'  meeting  by  the  teacher  re- 
sponsible will  often  prove  richer  in  suggestion  than  much  of 
the  principal's  own  comment.  The  public  approbation  ac- 
corded for  good  results  is  a  powerful  incentive  to  the  faculty. 
A  definite  problem  announced  beforehand  for  consideration 
will  often  find  ready  solution  from  the  discussion  of  those  who 
see  it  from  an  angle  other  than  that  of  the  principal.  A  volun- 
tary meeting  occasionally  where  those  teachers  most  interested 
contribute  their  ideas  over  a  cup  of  tea  will  frequently  reveal 
unsuspected  strength  and  resourcefulness  that  are  available 
for  assistance  to  the  administration.  A  committee  report 
on  an  important  problem  will  bring  out  valuable  discussion 
and  enlist  greater  interest  in  the  general  management  of  the 
school.  It  will  also  help  teachers  to  see  the  many-sidedness 
of  administrative  problems.  Too  often  the  removal  of  a 
chronic  difficulty  looks  to  them  so  simple  that  they  pass  un- 
favorable judgments  which  would  be  withheld  if  they  could 
come  to  see  the  whirlpool  they  would  steer  into  in  avoiding 
the  rock  they  wish  to  shun.  A  reasonably  variety  in  the 
program,  opportunity  for  teachers  to  contribute,  an  evident 
purpose  behind  every  meeting,  live  suggestions  that  can  be 
applied  directly  in  the  class  instruction,  efficient  interpreta- 
tion of  the  activities,  aims,  and  achievements  of  school  will 
help  to  make  the  teachers'  meeting  one  of  the  most  vital 
elements  in  the  progress  of  a  school. 

SCIENTIFIC  MEASUREMENT  ESSENTIAL.  —  One 
point  of  view  of  the  utmost  importance  in  all  school  manage- 
ment is  just  beginning  to  claim  the  attention  of  high  school 
principals.  For  years  we  have  gone  on  disputing  about  the 
value  of  various  subjects  in  the  curriculum,  about  fundamental 
theories  of  education,  and  about  methods  of  organization, 
without  studying  how  our  results  can  be  measured  scien- 
tifically. Willy-nilly,  we  must  compare  the  work  of  various 
teachers,  we  must  report  one  for  promotion  and  perhaps 


The  Organization  of  ttie  High  School       209 

another  for  dismissal.  We  must  settle  questions  of  curricu- 
lum and  method  because  there  is  no  one  else  to  decide,  and 
because  we  think  that  we  are  the  ones  best  qualified  to  de- 
cide. For  the  most  part  we  have  done  so  in  the  past  with 
comparatively  little  definite  data.  We  have  been  obliged  to 
support  our  conclusions  with  a  few  incidents  that  are  more 
or  less  typical  —  or  that  we  think  are  typical.  We  have 
measured  our  results  with  the  yardstick  of  our  desires  or 
perhaps  of  our  prejudices,  and  we  have  dogmatically  an- 
nounced our  conclusion  in  universal  affirmations.  Fortunately 
the  trail  is  now  being  blazed  for  a  surer  path. 


10         20         30         40     .    50         60          70          80         90        100 


Graph    showing   an    Uneven     Department. -- While  the 

departments  of  education  in  our  great  universities  are  making 
elaborate  studies,  formulating  various  units  of  measurement, 
publishing  the  results  of  their  experiments,  and  furnishing 
data  that  can  be  used  as  a  basis  for  comparison,  every  high 
school  principal  who  is  not  too  heavily  burdened  can  apply 
some  part  of  the  method  of  these  investigations  in  his  own 
school.  If  he  will  attempt  to  tabulate  in  graphic  form  some 
of  the  records  of  his  own  school,  he  will  be  amazed  at  the 
results.  For  example,  the  chart  above  shows  the  percentage 
of  pupils  passed  by  various  teachers  in  the  same  department 
of  one  school. 

Each  line  represents  the  work  of  one  teacher  in  the  depart- 


2IO  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ment.  The  blank  portion  shows  the  percentage  of  pupils 
passed  without  examination.  The  shaded  portion  shows  the 
percentage  examined  and  passed,  and  the  black  portion  shows 
the  percentage  failed.  It  is  evident  that  there  is  very  great 
diversity  of  practice  in  this  department.  Some  of  this  vari- 
ability may  be  caused  by  excellent  reasons.  At  least,  how- 
ever, it  is  subject  to  question  why  Teacher  A  should  exempt 
80  per  cent  of  his  pupils,  while  Teacher  S  exempts  only  4  per 
cent  of  his.  Possibly  conditions  for  this  particular  term 
were  unusual.  Similar  exhibits  for  several  terms,  however, 
in  which  each  teacher  handled  a  variety  of  the  subjects  of 
the  department,  would  show  conclusively  whether  or  not 
Teacher  S  habitually  marked  forty-five  times  as  severely  as 
Teacher  A.  If  he  does,  the  chance  of  a  pupil's  passing  this 
subject  in  this  school  would  seem  to  depend  largely  on  his 
good  or  ill  fortune  in  the  teacher  to  whom  he  is  assigned. 
Many  other  questions  would  be  raised  by  an  efficient  adminis- 
trator who  found  that  a  study  of  one  of  his  departments 
showed  such  results  as  these.  One  of  the  most  evident 
questions  would  concern  the  efficiency  of  the  department 
head. 

Typical  Statement  of  Pupil-hours  per  Teacher.  —  The 
fundamental  question  of  the  allotment  of  teachers  to  depart- 
ments too  often  depends  on  the  skill  of  the  head  of  the  depart- 
ment in  presenting  his  claims  to  the  principal  or  in  some  un- 
fortunate cases  to  the  superintendent  or  to  members  of  the 
Board  of  Education.  A  very  simple  study  of  the  pupil-hours 
per  teacher  will  show  at  once  where  teachers  are  needed,  or 
at  least  raise  the  question  clearly  what  special  consideration 
is  to  be  given  to  the  subjects  that  have  to  be  handled  in  smaller 
groups,  or  to  those  which,  like  English,  make  unusual  demands 
upon  the  teacher's  time.  A  glance  at  the  following  statement 
of  pupil-hours  per  subject  in  a  certain  school  removes  the 
question  of  the  allotment  of  teachers  from  the  realm  of  mere 
dispute: 


T/ie  Organization  of  the  High  School        2 1 1 

SUBJECT  PUPIL-HOURS  PER  TEACHER 

English 508 

Latin        462 

French 604 

German 666 

Science 691 

History 681 

Commerce 667 

Mathematics 657 

Domestic  science  and  art 467 

The  method  of  a  scientific  statement  of  facts  can  be  applied 
to  school  administration  in  an  infinite  variety  of  ways.  A 
principal  who  has  a  grasp  of  the  method  can  use  it  to  the 
great  advantage  of  his  school  in  ascertaining  where  the  school 
is  efficient  and  where  it  is  failing.  He  can  also  by  this  means 
present  facts  in  such  a  way  as  to  transfer  many  disputed 
questions  from  the  realm  of  opinion  to  that  of  fact.  He  can 
effectually  meet  many  criticisms  that  have  their  origin  in 
insufficient  data,  snap  judgments,  or  mere  prejudice. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  AND  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION. 
-  The  presentation  of  conclusions  drawn  from  a  study  of 
conditions  belongs  to  the  principal.  He  is  the  expert,  and  so 
long  as  his  conclusions  are  well-founded  they  should  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  powers  above  him  as  the  basis  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  school.  The  Board  of  Education  that  continually 
hampers  its  principal  by  meddling  in  affairs  that  belong  to 
him,  is  one  of  the  most  discouraging  hindrances  to  educational 
progress.  Their  proper  relation  to  the  executive  head  of  a 
school  or  of  a  system  should  be  similar  to  that  of  the  board  of 
directors  of  a  corporation.  Doctor  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  the 
father  of  scientific  management  in  America,  has  defined  the 
relations  of  such  a  board  in  a  way  that  should  be  considered 
by  any  school  board  that  thinks  it  should  exercise  the  function 
of  superintendent  or  principal.  In  a  lecture  before  the  Har- 
vard School  of  Business  Administration,  Doctor  Taylor 
said: 


212  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

''The  proper  functions  of  the  board  of  directors  would  be, 
for  instance,  to  select,  after  having  proper  evidence  presented 
to  it,  the  broad  and  general  type  of  management  to  be  intro- 
duced in  the  establishment.  .  .  .  After  having  done  this,  and 
after  having  broadly  stated  the  policy  of  the  company,  as  to 
payment  of  wages  and  salaries,  they  should  not  mess  into  the 
detail  of  the  personnel  —  by  ordering  the  president  to  employ 
this  man,  or  discharge  that  man,  or  promote  another  man. 
Nor  should  they  vote  a  reduction  of  wages  or  an  increase  of 
wages  contrary  to  the  leadership  of  their  president. 

"Other  functions  of  the  board  of  directors  should  be,  for 
example,  dictating  the  broad  policy  to  be  followed  in  the  sales 
department ;  namely,  whether  the  sales  are  to  be  mainly  con- 
ducted through  agencies  or  traveling  salesmen,  and  the 
extent  and  kind  of  advertising  to  be  used.  Again,  however, 
the  details  of  the  executive  work  should  be  left  under  the 
direction  of  the  president.  The  general  financial  policy  of  the 
company  should  also  be  one  of  the  functions  of  the  board 
of  directors,  as  well  as  the  broad  lines  along  which  progress  is 
to  be  made.  That  is,  the  decision  as  to  the  type  of  new  prod- 
uct to  be  manufactured  and  sold,  and  the  volume  of  business 
which  is  to  be  prepared  for. 

"The  president  should  lead  his  board  of  directors  rather 
than  be  a  tool  to  be  guided  by  them  in  detail ;  and  when  it 
becomes  impossible  for  the  president  to  lead  in  the  carrying 
out  of  the  general  policy  of  the  board,  another  man  should  be 
selected  for  the  head  of  the  business  who  is  in  harmony  with 
the  board's  wishes  and  competent  to  lead  them. 

"The  world's  experience  in  all  directions  has  demonstrated 
the  utter  impracticability  of  doing  successfully  executive  work 
under  the  management  of  a  body  of  men  either  large  or  small. 
An  executive  committee  of  one  is  the  best  committee  to  have  in 
charge  of  executive  work.  The  president  should  be  free  to 
have  as  many  advisers  around  him  as  he  wants,  and  these 
men  can  be  called  an  executive  committee  as  well  as  by  any 
other  name ;  but  their  duties  should  be  those  of  advisers.  In 
all  executive  acts  they  should  be  under  the  orders  of  the  presi- 
dent and  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  control  his  acts  by  a 
majority  vote.  He  should  in  principle  occupy  the  same  posi- 
tion as  the  President  of  the  United  States.  He  should  be  free, 


The  Organization  of  the  HigJi  School       213 

practically,  to  select  his  own  cabinet,  and  then  should  be  in 
complete  command  of  these  men.  The  men  under  him  should 
be  free  to  advise  him  in  the  most  emphatic  manner,  but  the 
final  decision  in  all  matters  should  rest  with  him,  and  the 
board  of  directors  should  not  entertain  nor  act  upon  appeals 
made  to  them  from  the  cabinet  officers  beneath  the  president."1 

HOW  THE  DIRECTION  OF  OUR  HIGH  SCHOOLS  CAN 
BE  MADE  MORE  ATTRACTIVE  TO  FIRST-CLASS  MEN. 

-  If  our  high  schools  are  to  be  efficiently  administered,  the 
principalship  must  be  made  sufficiently  attractive  to  com- 
mand the  services  of  first-class  men.  No  longer  can  the  pub- 
lic depend  upon  pure  idealism  as  an  incentive  for  young  men 
to  become  teachers.  School-mastering  is  no  longer  a  minis- 
terial profession.  The  allurements  of  business  are  unques- 
tionably taking  from  the  schools  many  of  the  most  efficient 
men  of  experience  as  well  as  the  vast  majority  of  young  men 
of  superior  education  and  administrative  ability.  A  prin- 
cipal should  have  a  good  education,  a  strong  moral  sense,  and 
enthusiasm  for  social  service.  He  must  also  have  first-rate 
executive  ability.  He  must  be  able  to  meet  people  well,  to 
judge  human  nature  keenly,  and  to  present  his  views  clearly 
and  convincingly.  These  are  qualities  that  will  command  large 
returns  and  large  freedom  in  the  business  world.  Yet  the 
public  often  demands  such  qualities  at  the  price  of  a  clerk  or 
a  bookkeeper.  It  often  gets  a  man  worth  double  the  salary 
it  pays  and  then  requires  him  to  do  a  large  amount  of  clerical 
work  that  could  be  performed  by  a  ten-dollar-a-week  assist- 
ant. It  very  often  expects  him  to  do  full  service  as  a  teacher, 
supervise  the  work  of  the  rest  of  the  faculty,  and  serve  in  a 
variety  of  public  capacities  classified  under  the  omnibus 
title  of  "  the  Perfesser."  In  addition  to  this,  many  of  the 
smaller  towns  subject  him  to  carping  criticism  and  inter- 
ference that  only  too  frequently  either  make  him  a  petty 

bulletin  No.  5,  Academic   and   Industrial    Efficiency.     Carnegie    Founda- 
tion, 1910,  p.  15. 


214  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

schemer  with  his  mind  fixed  on  petty  affairs  or  drive  him  in 
disgust  from  the  profession. 

In  the  cities  there  are  many  principals  who  are  charged 
with  the  direction  of  from  1500  to  3000  pupils  and  the  ex- 
penditure of  from  $100,000  to  $300,000  annually.  A  difference 
in  per-pupil  cost  of  ten  dollars  a  year  would  mean  from  $10,000 
to  $30,000  per  year.  Moreover,  the  difference  in  real  efficiency 
between  a  principal  who  grasps  the  full  significance  of  his 
task  and  one  who  sees  it  only  in  the  light  of  academic  tradition 
cannot  be  measured,  because  it  enters  into  the  very  lives  of 
the  young  people  and  through  them  into  the  communities 
they  will  help  to  form.  Business  would  insist  upon  the  best 
grade  of  ability  in  positions  of  similar  importance,  and  it 
would  make  such  a  return  in  salary  and  in  freedom  to  develop 
individual  ideas  that  the  best  ability  would  be  attracted  to 
the  positions.  When,  the  public  exercises  similar  liberality 
it  will  be  able  to  insist  on  a  larger  social  return  for  its  school 
budget. 

THE  CURRICULUM. —When  the  American  high  school 
first  arose,  and  during  what  may  well  be  termed  the  period  of 
its  struggle  for  existence,  the  need  of  higher  education  for  any 
large  percentage  of  our  people  was  relatively  slight.  With  an 
elementary  school  system  of  very  meager  proportions  still  in  its 
infancy;  with  the  principle  of  general  taxation  for  education 
scarcely  established;  with  little  surplus  national  wealth;  with 
few  of  the  pressing  problems  of  government,  industry,  and 
human  relations,  with  which  we  of  to-day  are  so  familiar,  not 
as  yet  markedly  in  evidence;  and  with  but  a  small  portion  of 
our  present  organized  knowledge  as  yet  available  for  purposes 
of  instruction,  it  can  readily  be  understood  that  the  high  school 
of  the  earlier  period  was  very  limited  in  its  scope,  and  was 
demanded  by  but  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  people. 
Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics  constituted  the  backbone 
and  the  bulk  of  all  instruction;  the  course  of  study  was  the 
same  for  all;  and  the  school  was  useful  chiefly  as  a  prepara- 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       215 

tion  for  entering  some  one  of  the  denominational  colleges  of 
the  time. 

The  past  fifty  years,  however,  have  witnessed  very  great 
and  very  significant  changes  in  every  feature  of  our  national 
life,  and  the  public  secondary  school  has  shared  in  these 
changes.  Everywhere  such  schools  have  been  adopted  as  a 
necessary  part  of  a  system  of  popular  education,  new  classes 
of  people  have  been  attracted  to  them,  and  new  subjects  of 
instruction  have  been  provided.  The  development  of  the 
secondary  school  since  1890,  and  particularly  since  1900,  has 
been  marked.  With  the  gradual  evolution  of  the  new  con- 
ceptions as  to  the  purpose  and  function  of  public  education, 
there  has  been  a  gradually  increasing  demand  that  the  second- 
ary schools  shall  more  thoroughly  meet  the  needs  of  the  new 
classes  in  the  population  which  have  turned  to  them  for  help 
and  enlightenment.  This  has  greatly  changed  the  nature  of 
high  school  work. 

First  to  be  introduced  were  history  and  English  literature, 
and  then  the  modern  languages.  In  the  seventies  and  eighties 
came  the  sciences,  first  in  book  form  and  shortly  afterward 
as  laboratory  studies.  Manual  training  and  domestic  arts 
came  to  be  recognized  as  teaching  subjects  for  special  schools 
in  the  late  eighties,  and  have  since  been  incorporated  as  parts 
of  regular  high  school  instruction.  Business  training,  at 
first  introduced  as  a  concession  to  public  opinion  and  to  meet 
the  competition  of  the  private  "  business  colleges,"  has  since 
been  adopted  as  a  useful  addition,  and,  in  the  larger  city  high 
schools,  is  being  transformed  into  good,  strong,  commercial 
or  business  courses.  Still  more  recently  agriculture  has  been 
admitted  as  a  useful  subject  of  instruction,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  agricultural  high  school  has  been  very 
rapid. 

These  many  additions  have  affected  the  high  school  cur- 
riculum in  two  ways:  (i)  the  old  course  has  been  expanded 
and  crowded,  resulting  in  the  introduction  both  of  elective 


2i 6  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

studies  and  elective  courses;  and  (2)  new  types  of  high  schools 
have  arisen  by  the  side  of  the  old  to  minister  to  the  new  needs. 
These  changes  may  be  illustrated  by  a  few  typical  examples 
of  high  school  curricula,  chosen  from  different  types  of  Ameri- 
can high  schools,  and  by  an  enumeration  of  the  different  types 
of  high  schools  which  have  been  formed. 

Types  of  High  School  Curricula. — I.  A  small  New  Eng- 
land high  school,  in  which  the  one  fixed,  traditional  course 
of  study,  almost  entirely  based  on  book  work,  has  had  to 
give  way  to  changing  demands  and  admit  a  few  electives 
during  the  last  two  years.  This  type  of  school  is  still  very 
common  in  conservative  communities  and  among  rural  high 
schools. 

First  Year,  Third  Year, 

English  Composition  and  Literature     English  Literature 
Ancient  History  Modern  English  History 

Latin  Latin  (or  German) 

Algebra  Physics  (or  Bookkeeping  and  Busi- 

ness Arithmetic) 

Second  Year,  Fourth  Year, 

English  Composition  and  Literature     English  Literature 
Medieval  History  American    History    and    Govern- 

Latin  ment 

Geometry  Latin  (or  German) 

Chemistry    (or   Typewriting   and 
Shorthand) 

II.  A  medium-sized  city  high  school,  located  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  Here,  by  combinations,  five  different  courses 
of  instruction  have  been  arranged,  supposedly  to  fit  different 
types  of  individuals.  Such  combinations  are  quite  common, 
though  the  tendency  is  to  decrease  the  number  of  required 
subjects  and  to  increase  the  number  of  electives  in  each.  In 
the  administration  of  the  school  this  is  usually  done  in  indi- 
vidual cases,  though  not  indicated  in  the  paper  courses  of 
study. 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       217 


I.  ANCIENT  CLASSICAL    II.  MODERN  LANGUAGE    III.  HISTORY-ENGLISH 
COURSE  COURSE  COURSE 


First  Year, 
Latin 

Ancient  History 
English 
Algebra 

Second  Year, 

Latin 
Greek 
English 
Geometry 

Third  Year, 

Latin 
Greek 
English 
Physics 

Fourth  Year, 

Latin 
Greek 
English 
(Elective) 


First  Year, 
German 

Ancient  History 
English 
Algebra 

Second  Year, 

German 

Medieval  History 
English 
Geometry 


First  Year, 

Latin  or  German 
Ancient  History 
English 
Algebra 

Second  Year, 

Latin  or  German 
Medieval  History 
English 
Geometry 


Third  Year,  Third  Year, 

French  (or  Spanish)  Modern  History 

Modern  History  English 

English  Physics 

Physics  Drawing 


Fourth  Year, 

French  (or  Spanish) 
American  History 

and  Government 
English 
(Elective) 


Fourth  Year, 

American  History 

and  Government 
English 
(Elective) 
(Elective) 


IV.   SCIENTIFIC  COURSE 
First  Year, 

German 
Botany 
English 
Algebra 

Second  Year, 

German 
Zoology 
English 
Geometry 


V.   BUSINESS  COURSE 
First  Year, 

(any  other  course) 


Second  Year, 

(any  other  course) 


218  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


IV.   SCIENTIFIC  COURSE  (Cont.) 
Third  Year, 
Physics 
Drawing 
Trigonometry 
(Elective) 

Fourth  Year, 
Chemistry 
Drawing 

American  History  and  Govern- 
ment 
(Elective) 


V.   BUSINESS  COURSE  (Cont.) 
Third  Year, 
Spanish 

Business  Arithmetic 
Bookkeeping 
Typewriting 

Fourth  Year, 
Spanish 

Business  Practice 
(Commercial  Geography) 
(Commercial  Law) 
(Shorthand) 


III.  A  large  city  high  school,  located  in  the  West,  where 
fixed  courses  have  been  abandoned.  The  school  offers  a  wide 
range  of  subjects,  requires  certain  fixed  units  by  groups,  and 
makes  up  a  different  course  of  study  for  each  high  school  pupil. 
The  following  studies  are  offered,  the  numbers  in  parenthesis 
following  each  indicating  the  number  of  years  of  each  subject 
offered  bv  the  school. 


GROUP  I.  —  LANGUAGES 
Latin  (4) 
Greek  (3) 
German  (4) 
French  (2) 
Spanish  (2) 


GROUP  II.  —  ENGLISH 
English  Composition  (2) 
English  Literature  (4) 
Hist.  Eng.  &  Am.  Lit.  (i) 


GROUP  III.  —  HISTORY 
Ancient  History  (i) 
Medieval  History  (i) 
Modern  English  History  (i) 
General  World  History  (i) 
Am.  Hist.  &  Govt.  (i) 


GROUP  IV.  —  MATHEMATICS 
Algebra     (i,  if) 
Geometry  (i,  if) 
Trigonometry  (f) 
Surveying     (f) 
Business  Arithmetic  (^) 

GROUP  V.  —  SCIENCE 
Botany  (i) 
Zoology  (i) 
Biology  (i) 

Physical  Geography  (i) 
Physics  (i) 
Chemistry  (i) 
Geology  (f) 
Astronomy  (f ) 

GROUP  VI.  —  MISCELLANEOUS 
Music  (2) 

Freehand  Drawing  (2) 
Vocal  Expression  (2) 
Physical  Training  (4) 


The  Organization  of  tJie  High  School       219 

GROUP  VII. — VOCATIONAL  Household  Management  (i) 

Mechanical  and  Geometrical  Bookkeeping  (i) 

Drawing  (2)  Business  Practice  (i) 

Manual  Training  (3)  Shorthand  (i) 

Domestic  Science  (2)  Typewriting  (i) 

Rules  governing  combinations  and  graduation  : 

(i)  Students,  to  graduate,  must  complete  15  years'  work,  viz.,  four 
studies  each  year  for  three  years,  and  three  studies  one  year.  (2)  Students 
may,  on  permission,  take  as  many  as  five  studies  or  as  few  as  three  studies 
each  half-year.  (3)  Students,  to  graduate,  must  have  had  two  years' 
work  in  groups  I  and  II,  one  year's  work  in  each  of  the  other  groups,  and 
four  years'  work  in  some  one  group.  (4)  Study  cards  must  be  made  out 
each  half-year,  and  must  be  approved  by  the  principal  and  the  parent. 

The  three  types  of  high  school  courses  given  above  illustrate 
the  development  which  has  taken  place,  and  the  tendency. 
Excepting  agriculture,  all  new  forms  of  instruction  are  rep- 
resented in  the  one  school.  The  advantages  to  the  pupil 
are  evident,  while  it  is  clear  that  such  grouping  of  courses  to 
meet  individual  needs  as  is  provided  for  in  the  third  type  has 
advantages  over  that  provided  in  the  second  type. 

In  some  cities  high  school  development  has  taken  a  different 
direction,  and  instead  of  expanding  the  high  school  to  meet  the 
many  different  needs,  new  types  of  high  schools  have  been 
founded,  and  type  or  class  high  schools  have  resulted.  There 
are  to-day,  in  different  places,  the  following  different  types 
of  secondary  schools. 

(i)  The  so-called  cultural  or  general  high  school;  offering 
courses  in  the  languages,  literature,  history,  mathematics,  and 
some  science.  This  is  distinctively  a  college  preparatory 
high  school.  (2)  The  manual  training  high  school ;  offering 
courses  in  science,  mathematics,  modern  languages  and  his- 
tory, English,  and  shopwork.  This  is  preparatory  for  the 
engineering  colleges,  and  work  in  shops  and  trades.  It  often 
includes  the  third  type,  for  girls.  (3)  The  household  arts 
school.  While  usually  included  under  the  manual  training 
school,  a  few  such  are  being  established  separately.  It  offers 


220  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

courses  in  English,  history,  the  sciences,  and  subjects  relating  to 
household  management,  and  is  a  technical  school  for  women's 
work.  (4)  The  commercial  high  school.  This  is  an  intensi- 
fication of  the  commercial  course,  and  offers  good  courses  in 
modern  languages,  history,  science,  and  office  practice.  It  is 
preparatory  for  commercial  pursuits  on  a  larger  scale  than  the 
old  business  course.  (5)  The  agricultural  high  school.  This 
offers  courses  in  English,  mathematics,  sciences,  some  manual 
training  and  household  science,  and  agricultural  studies.  It 
is  preparatory  for  farm  life,  or  for  the  colleges  of  agriculture. 

It  is  desirable  both  that  these  different  types  of  high  schools 
should  exist  separately  in  some  cases,  and  in  many  other  cases 
should  be  combined  in  one.  In  their  beginnings  all  new  types 
of  schools  usually  prosper  better  if  provided  for  separately ; 
but,  after  these  new  schools  have  established  themselves  and 
their  work  has  been  accepted  as  a  good  and  legitimate  edu- 
cational effort,  it  is  wise  then  to  combine  a  number  of  such 
types  in  one  school,  and  thus  offer  a  larger  range  of  choice  to 
each  high  school  pupil.  The  American  high  school,  if  it  is  to 
realize  its  highest  educational  purpose,  should  be  preeminently 
a  place  for  the  testing  of  capacity,  the  development  of  tastes, 
and  the  opening  up  of  vocational  opportunities  of  many 
kinds.  This  involves  intelligent  oversight  and  direction  on 
the  part  of  teachers  and  principals,  a  rich  and  varied  curricu- 
lum from  which  to  select,  and  freedom  from  hard  and  fast 
prescriptions. 

THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM  OF  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS. 
—  In  the  course  of  its  evolution,  the  high  school  has  developed 
an  extensive  program  of  studies,  —  four  or  five  foreign  lan- 
guages; English  for  every  grade;  mathematics  for  three  or 
more  years;  two,  three,  or  four  sciences;  history  for  two  or 
more  grades;  and,  in  addition,  manual  and  commercial  sub- 
jects. These  have  contributed  to  the  making  of  a  program 
far  too  extensive  to  be  within  the  reach  of  any  one  pupil. 
For  a  time,  with  the  introduction  of  new  subjects  less  and 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       221 

less  time  was  assigned  to  each,  with  the  result  that  when  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  was  written,  many  large 
high  schools  were  giving  twelve  and. fourteen  weeks'  courses 
in  science,  short  courses  in  history,  and  smatterings  of  three 
or  more  foreign  tongues.  The  Report  of  the  Committee  of 
Ten  greatly  emphasized  the  desirability  of  an  intensive  treat- 
ment in  the  high  school  of  relatively  few  subjects.  The  effect 
of  this  Report  was  only  rarely  the  complete  elimination  of 
any  subject  from  the  high  school,  but  generally  resulted  in  a 
tendency  to  intensify  and  extend  the  treatment  of  each  one. 
More  than  ever  did  it  become  necessary  that  the  individual 
student  should  take  but  a  part,  and  frequently  a  small  part, 
of  the  entire  range  of  subjects  open  to  him.  Another  tendency 
contributing  to  the  flexible  course  of  study  was  the  increasing 
range  of  capacity  and  interest  found  in  the  students  of  the 
high  school.  A  variety  of  studies  in  science,  drawing,  com- 
mercial branches,  and  manual  training  were  introduced  to 
meet  these  demands.  A  third  element  in  the  development 
of  the  flexible  course  grew  out  of  the  conception  in  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  of  Ten  that  it  was  of  less  importance  what 
particular  studies  were  pursued  than  what  was  the  method 
employed  in  teaching  them.  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
majority  of  the  Committee,  each  secondary  school  subject 
was  assumed  to  have  equal  value  with  any  other,  if  properly 
taught.  It  was,  therefore,  natural  to  assume,  if  a  pupil  mani- 
fested a  strong  aversion  to  Latin  or  mathematics,  that  some 
other  equally  well-taught  subject  could  be  substituted. 

Not  long  after  the  appearance  of  the  Report,  students  of 
education  began  actively  to  question  certain  fundamental 
assumptions  implicit  in  it,  and  particularly  the  disciplinary 
conception  advocated  by  the  Committee.  It  was  commonly 
asserted  that  Latin,  better  than  any  other  subject,  trained 
faculties  of  observation,  verbal  discrimination,  powers  of 
analytical  thinking,  etc.  Equally,  it  was  claimed  that  the 
study  of  mathematics  strengthened  reasoning  powers  and 


222  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

greatly  improved  the  capacity  for  systematic  generalization. 
A  series  of  critical  articles,  as  well  as  certain  investigations 
in  psychological  laboratories,  tended  during  the  last  decade 
of  the  nineteenth  century  to  unsettle  existing  preconceptions 
regarding  mental  discipline;  in  fact,  there  developed  a  tend- 
ency to  assert  that  mental  training  should  be  a  secondary 
consideration  in  the  teaching  of  any  subject,  and  that  the 
subject  itself  should  involve  a  content  of  knowledge  or  other 
power-producing  material  which  should  justify  it,  and  that, 
in  the  course  of  its  presentation,  mental  training  would  follow 
as  an  accompaniment. 

Finally,  in  recent  educational  theory  there  has  grown  up 
an  increased  belief  in  the  wisdom  of  adapting  education  to  the 
individual.  This  represents  a  considerable  departure  from 
an  older  theory  of  education,  that  the  individual  should  be 
fitted  to  a  given  field  of  subject  matter.  This  change  came 
about,  partly,  from  the  causes  already  presented.  It  was 
found  that  not  only  the  interests,  but  the  needs  and  capacities 
of  secondary  school  pupils  vary  greatly.  Furthermore,  it 
was  found  that  the  important  end  of  education  was  to  prepare 
individuals  for  some  field  of  activity  wherein  that  which  was 
learned  in  the  high  school  would  find  application,  either  as 
culture  or  in  vocational  power. 

The  foregoing  influences  resulted  in  the  development  of  the 
so-called  elective  system.  It  is  true  that,  from  its  beginnings 
in  the  academy,  the  secondary  school  program  had  been 
somewhat  elastic,  but  its  elasticity  had  assumed  the  form 
of  alternative  courses,  each  course,  however,  representing  a 
fixed  and  unvarying  demand  on  the  pupil.  Naturally,  al- 
ternative courses  varied  mainly  in  their  demands  for  foreign 
language  and  for  science;  English  and  mathematics  were 
usually  prescribed  subjects. 

The  elective  system,  however,  carried  the  matter  of  al- 
ternative subjects  to  the  point  of  allowing  each  pupil,  within 
the  limits  of  the  range  of  subjects  presented  by  the  school 


The  Organization  of  the  High  ScJiool       223 

and  the  other  inherent  restrictions  of  program,  substantially 
to  make  up  his  own  course.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  school 
or  the  pupil,  the  important  consideration  was  not  always  so 
much  the  subjects  which  could  be  taken  as  those  which  could 
be  omitted.  During  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
and  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth,  the  literature  of  secondary 
education  was  tilled  with  discussions  of  the  elective  system. 
It  was  felt  by  some  that  it  represented  a  demoralizing  tendency 
in  that  it  weakened  the  educational  conception  of  discipline 
through  the  more  difficult  subjects.  Educational  conser- 
vatives feared  that  it  meant  a  persistent  discounting  of  classics 
and  mathematics.  They  apprehended  a  rapid  development 
of  the  more  vocational  studies,  and  denied  that  the  individual 
pupil  had  any  capacity  for  self-direction  in  the  choice  of  a 
program  of  studies.  They  asserted  that,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  best  development  of  the  individual,  it  was  highly  im- 
portant that  certain  fields  of  culture  should  be  opened  to  him, 
even  by  compulsory  methods.  In  only  a  few  schools  did  the 
theory  of  free  election  of  subjects  make  much  progress.  In 
these  instances  the  graduation  of  the  pupil  was  made  to  de- 
pend upon  the  accomplishment  of  a  certain  number  of  units 
of  work,  but  without  reference  to  any  specific  subjects.  He 
might  omit  history  or  mathematics,  no  less  than  a  foreign 
language  or  a  branch  of  science.  More  commonly  the  system 
took  the  form  of  a  certain  number  of  prescribed  studies,  with 
a  considerable  range  of  alternatives  or  options  from  which  the 
pupil  could  choose.  In  the  case  of  some  large  high  schools, 
for  the  requirement  of  specific  subjects  there  was  substituted 
the  demand  that,  for  graduation,  a  minimum  number  of  units 
of  accomplishment  in  foreign  language,  science,  history,  etc., 
should  be  presented,  the  pupil,  however,  retaining  the  privilege 
of  electing  among  the  various  subjects  in  science  or  history 
as  the  case  might  be. 

As  a  rule,  few  of  the  apprehended  evils  of  the  elective  system 
have  developed  in   practice.     There  has  been   an   increased 


224  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

tendency  to  induce  the  pupil  to  make  his  selections  not  only 
with  the  approval  of  some  advisory  teacher,  but  of  parents 
as  well.  The  limitations  of  the  school  curriculum,  even  in 
the  larger  schools,  have  acted  as  an  important  barrier  to  free 
election.  Furthermore,  the  fact  that  a  considerable  number  of 
students  anticipate  entering  college,  where  the  entrance  re- 
quirements are  more  or  less  prescribed,  has  prevented  anything 
like  a  free  use  of  possible  electives. 

While  the  tendency  is  still  to  extend  the  possibilities  of 
election  of  secondary  school  subjects,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  important  underlying  problems  must  be  solved  before 
an  adequate  discussion  of  election  is  possible.  There  yet 
exists  no  satisfactory  theory  regarding  educational  values, 
especially  of  secondary  school  subjects.  Quite  universally, 
for  example,  algebra  and  geometry  are  prescribed  for  both 
boys  and  girls  in  secondary  schools.  Neither  experience 
nor  the  tests  of  educational  laboratories  serve  yet  to  demon- 
strate the  superior  value  of  these  subjects.  The  same  may 
be  said  to  be  true  of  the  foreign  languages  so  far  as  their  train- 
ing value  is  concerned.  The  science  subjects  have  undergone 
steady  modification  in  modern  education,  becoming  more 
formal  and  rigid.  There  is  yet  no  satisfactory  evidence  that, 
as  now  taught,  these  sciences  contribute  in  an  important 
way  to  either  culture  or  practical  capacity  in  greater  degree 
than  other  possible  subjects. 

In  prescribed  programs  it  is  the  tendency  to  require  subjects 
such  as  foreign  language,  mathematics,  and  science,  which 
are  most  fully  organized  and  which  lend  themselves  most 
satisfactorily  to  traditional  methods  of  pedagogic  treatment. 
Until,  however,  there  exists  more  satisfactory  knowledge  re- 
garding educational  values,  it  will  be  difficult  to  treat  the 
subject  of  the  elective  system  with  anything  like  finality. 
It  can  be  easily  seen  that  the  arguments  for  and  against 
election  hinge  upon  the  theory  of  educational  values  and  the 
capacity  of  a  school  to  effect  individual  programs  adapted 


Tlie  Organization  of  the  High  School        225 

to  the  various  pupils.  If  we  believe  that  a  limited  number 
of  well-organized  secondary  school  subjects  give  either  prac- 
tical capacity,  cultural  insight,  or  mental  training  to  be 
equaled  in  no  other  way,  then  it  is  a  fair  assumption  that  the 
school  program  should  make  these  subjects  prescriptive. 
There  is  little  place  for  election,  since  the  self-knowledge  of 
the  pupil  and  the  experience  of  his  parents  are  altogether  in- 
sufficient to  offset  the  results  of  the  constructive  effort  which 
has  gone  to  the  making  of  the  programs.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  the  educational  values 
of  certain  subjects  have  been  greatly  exaggerated,  and  that 
what  the  pupil  shall  study  is  of  less  importance  than  his 
interest  in  the  subject  and  the  methods  employed  in  teaching 
it,  then  it  can  easily  be  seen  that  satisfactory  arguments  can 
be  made  for  allowing  a  part  selection  on  the  part  of  the  pupil 
himself. 

Other  factors  naturally  enter  into  the  discussion.  Freedom 
of  election  means,  naturally,  that  popular  teachers  will  be 
sought  and  unpopular  ones  avoided,  —  a  result  which  may 
tend  to  demoralize  administration,  and  may  or  may  not  tend 
to  promote  more  effective  pedagogical  methods  on  the  part 
of  the  teachers  themselves.  It  is  believed  that  free  election 
would  tend  to  promote  the  study  of  practical  subjects,  at  the 
expense  of  the  more  cultural,  but  again  the  relative  educational 
values  of  the  two  types  will  be  disputed.  It  is  highly  probable 
that  a  more  extended  analysis  of  the  subject  of  election  will 
have  to  wait  a  fuller  and  more  scientific  formulation  of  educa- 
tional theory,  as  applied  to  secondary  school  studies. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  the  high  school 
as  at  present  organized  contributes  certain  types  of  definite 
training  more  effectively  than  it  develops  culture  and  appre- 
ciation. On  the  other  hand,  the  greatest  deficiency  of  existing 
high  school  programs  seems  to  be  their  incapacity  to  produce 
results  of  a  persistent  nature;  for  example,  the  study  of  a 
foreign  language  or  of  mathematics,  even  when  well  carried 
Q 


226  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

on,  fails  largely  in  the  face  of  later  demands;  the  general  goal 
aimed  at  is  not  realized.  Distinctions  will  have  to  be  made 
among  various  high  school  studies,  with  a  view  to  determining 
the  specific  principles  or  purpose  which  each  should  serve  in 
a  program  of  fairly  well-defined  educational  ends,  and  in 
adapting  to  each  subject  its' own  suitable  method.  This  may 
be  illustrated  in  the  case  of  English.  One  object  of  the  teach- 
ing of  English  in  the  high  schools  is  undoubtedly  efficiency 
of  expression,  both  oral  and  written.  Another  object,  how- 
ever, and  quite  distinct  from  the  above,  is  appreciation  of 
good  literature.  It  seems  highly  probable  that  these  two 
ends  will  have  to  be  attained  by  radically  different  methods. 
The  same  distinction  will  apply  to  certain  of  the  sciences, 
when  pursued  from  the  standpoint  of  application  in  voca- 
tion on  the  one  hand,  or  service  in  general  culture  on  the 
other. 

The  general  discussion  of  the  elective  system  has  probably 
greatly  promoted  interest  in  the  problems  of  educational 
values.  It  brought  subjects  into  competition,  as  it  were,  in 
a  definite  way.  Until,  however,  more  knowledge  is  available, 
many  educators  will  assume  that  the  choices  made  by  the 
pupil,  even  when  dictated  by  him  and  caprice,  may,  and,  so 
far  as  he  is  concerned,  will  be  no  worse  than  the  choice  made 
by  a  more  or  less  inflexible  system  which  not  only  fails  to  take 
account  of  him  as  an  individual,  but  which,  to  a  large  extent, 
has  had  its  origin  independently  of  the  study  of  any  group 
whatever  of  actual  living  individuals. 

SIX- YEAR  COURSE  OF  STUDY. »-  The  fact  that  the 
American  secondary  school,  unlike  similar  schools  in  Europe, 
takes  the  pupil  at  fourteen,  or  on  the  completion  of  an  ele- 
mentary course  extending  over  eight  years,  is  to  a  certain 
extent  one  of  the  effects  of  the  historical  development  of 
American  education.  The  common  school  or  the  elemen- 
tary school  was  first  established,  and,  in  order  to  accomplish 
a  full  measure  of  general  education,  it  involved  eight  or  nine, 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       227 

and  sometimes  ten  grades,  each  a  year  in  length.  The  typical 
American  elementary  school  of  to-day  consists  of  eight  grades, 
and  carries  the  average  pupil  from  the  age  of  six  to  the  age 
of  fourteen.  The  first  secondary  schools  —  the  Latin  gram- 
mar school  and  then  the  academy  —  took  on  something  of 
the  character  of  European  secondary  schools,  in  that  they 
maintained  preparatory  classes  in  which  attention  was  early 
given  to  some  secondary  school  studies.  The  public  high 
school,  however,  was  almost  universally  designed  to  succeed 
the  elementary  school  course,  and  to  build  on  it.  As  a 
consequence,  admission  to  the  high  school  everywhere  re- 
quires the  completion  of  an  eight-year  elementary  course, 
and  brings  the  pupil  in  at  approximately  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  of  age. 

This  situation  has  obvious  defects.  It  cannot  be  insisted, 
of  course,  that  all  American  children,  or  even  any  consider- 
able number  of  them,  should  complete  the  high  school  course 
of  study.  For  those  who  do,  however,  the  postponement 
of  the  beginning  of  foreign  language  study,  as  well  as  of  algebra 
and  geometry,  works  undoubted  harm.  For  the  boy  who  is 
to  go  through  high  school  and  into  college,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  but  that  the  years  between  twelve  and  fourteen  under 
the  present  system  of  schooling  are  largely  wasted,  at  least, 
when  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mastery  of  particular 
studies  which  should  assist  in  the  higher  schools.  The  atten- 
tion given  to  this  subject  in  recent  years  has  led  to  a  fairly 
widespread  demand  for  a  six-year  course  of  study  in  the  high 
school,  which  should  take  pupils  at  approximately  the  age 
which  is  becoming  customary  in  some  European  countries, 
and  which  especially  should  aid  them  to  begin  the  study  of 
foreign  language  at  a  time  when  the  vocal  and  auditory  organs 
are  still  plastic.  The  administrative  difficulties  have  been  so 
great,  however,  that  only  in  rare  instances  has  the  experiment 
been  made.  The  chief  difficulty  is  found  in  the  unwillingness 
of  the  American  people  to  permit  either  a  differentiation  of 


228  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

schools  or  a  differentiation  of  classes  of  studies  before  the 
elementary  school  course  has  been  completed.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  little  tolerance  for  the  prescription  of  foreign 
language  study  for  all  pupils  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  ele- 
mentary school.  The  result  has  been  that,  while  a  consider- 
able literature  has  been  produced  bearing  on  the  desirability 
of  extending  high  school  studies  and  high  school  methods 
downward,  very  little  of  a  practical  nature  has  been  accom- 
plished. 

The  problem  is  now  being  approached  in  some  cities  in  a 
different  way.  It  is  recognized  that  the  boys  and  girls  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age  possess  certain  distinctive 
characteristics  and  educational  needs,  which  should  separate 
them  from  the  primary  school  which  has  preceded.  In  not 
a  few  cities  it  is  now  customary  to  group  the  upper  grades  in 
what  are  sometimes  called  intermediate  schools,  where  favora- 
ble opportunities  may  be  given  for  manual  training,  domestic 
science  for  girls,  commercial  studies,  and,  in  a  few  instances, 
foreign  languages.  While  few  of  these  schools  have  reached 
the  point  of  differentiating  their  courses,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  in  a  large  number  of  instances  they  are  ready  to  do  so,  if 
public  opinion  responds  favorably.  One  of  these  schools  in  a 
Massachusetts  city  (Fitchburg)  now  receives  pupils  on  the 
completion  of  the  sixth  grade,  and  admits  them  to  any  one  of 
four  courses.  Certain  studies,  such  as  English,  history,  geog- 
raphy, and  music  are  common  for  all,  and  are  taken  jointly 
in  the  classes.  Certain  other  studies  are  alternative,  and  it 
is  on  the  basis  of  these  that  the  courses  are  distinguished. 
For  example,  boys  who  wish  it  may  take  two  hours  of  manual 
training  per  day,  and  thereby  become  members  of  the  industrial 
arts  course;  for  them  the  arithmetic  and  drawing  will  also  be 
somewhat  specialized  along  the  lines  of  the  industrial  arts. 
Another  group  of  boys  and  girls,  instead  of  manual  arts,  may 
take  a  foreign  language,  the  beginnings  of  algebra,  geometry, 
and  English  history.  This  is  obviously  a  high  school  prepara- 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       229 

tory  course,  and  may  legitimately  be  regarded  as  part  of  a  six- 
year  high  school  course,  which  it  is  hoped  in  time  may  be- 
come five  years  in  length,  thus  admitting  pupils  to  college  one 
year  earlier.  A  third  course  offers  to  girls  two  hours  per  day 
of  household  arts,  the  subject  being  treated  very  broadly, 
with  related  history  and  science.  A  fourth  course,  known  as 
the  commercial  course,  offers  opportunities  in  typewriting, 
commercial  arithmetic,  the  beginnings  of  bookkeeping,  and  a 
line  of  work  wherein  commercial  geography  and  industrial 
history  are  combined. 

It  is  not  intended  that  any  of  the  above  courses  shall  be  vo- 
cational, but  that  some  of  them  shall  draw  from  the  world  of 
vocational  activities  studies  and  problems  that  are  significant 
and  vital  to  the  pupils  concerned.  Neither  is  it  intended  that 
any  of  the  above  courses  shall  be  a  blind  alley,  in  the  sense  that 
it  leads  to  no  higher  work.  Nevertheless,  it  is  obvious  that 
a  pupil  from  the  industrial  arts  course  who  wishes  to  go  through 
high  school  will  have  to  take  additional  time  in  order  to  meet 
the  language  requirements. 

The  above  represents  a  type  of  development  in  educational 
administration  which  will  probably  realize  the  purposes  of 
the  so-called  six-year  course  of  study,  without  involving 
premature  differentiation  of  classes  of  pupils  on  the  basis  of 
their  ability  or  economic  state  in  life.  It  will  afford  an  op- 
portunity to  make  of  foreign  language  study  something  more 
effective  than  is  possible  at  the  present  time.  It  will  promote 
departmental  teaching,  and  the  introduction  of  college-trained 
teachers  in  the  higher  grades. 

TOPICS   FOR  FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  How  do  principals  and  heads  of  departments  spend  their  time? 
Classify  under:     (i)   instructing   classes,   (2)   visiting  classes  of    other 
teachers,  (3)  assisting  in  the  general  administration  of  the  school. 

2.  What  is  the  relative  efficiency  of  pupils  from  various   grammar 
schools  as  measured  by:    (i)  attendance,  (2)  remaining  in  school,  (3) 
success  in  various  subjects  of  instruction  ? 


230  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

3.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  size  of  classes  to  efficiency  in  instruction  ? 

4.  What  is  the  earning  power  of  graduates  in  relation  to  :    (i)  scholar- 
ship in  various  lines,  (2)  activity  in  student  affairs  ? 

5.  Classify  pupils'  time  allotment  to  the  preparation  of  the  various 
subjects  of  the  curriculum. 

6.  Classify   causes   of   leaving   school.      Compare   studies   of   Ayers, 
Van  Denburg,  and  Strayer  and  Thorndike. 

7.  What  percentage  of  the  total  cost  of  the  school  is  devoted  to  in- 
struction in  work  that  has  once  been  pursued  unsuccessfully  ? 

8.  Study  failures  and  eliminations  from  school  in  relation  to:     (i) 
outside  social  activities,  (2)  misfits  in  course  of  study,  (3)    vocational 
ambitions,  (4)  financial  pressure. 

9.  To  what  extent  does  the  community  life  affect  the  high  school  in 
respect  to  :    (i)  courses  offered,  (2)  the  social  life  of  the  school,  (3)  prep- 
aration for  higher  education  ? 

10.  To    what    extent    does  the  high    school  affect    the    life  of   the 
community  ? 

1 1 .  What  is  the  average  percentage  of  absence  and  tardiness  ? 

12.  Classify  causes  of  absence  and  tardiness. 

13.  How  much  does  this  absence  cost  in  money  ? 

14.  How  is  the  total  time  of  the  course  in  English  divided  between : 
(i)  English  literature,  (2)  oral  composition,  (3)  written  composition  ? 

15.  Experiment  with  ico  pupils  taking  foreign  languages  for  a  certain 
number  of  years  and  an  approximately  equal  group  taking  no  foreign 
language,  but  giving  half  as  much  time  to  English  etymology  and  com- 
position in  addition  to  the  regular  English   course.     Test  by   written 
composition,  spelling,  and  examinations  in  word  derivation.     Classify 
for  comparison,  sentence  and  paragraph  structure,  correctness  in  diction, 
ease  and  facility  of  expression. 

1 6.  What  are  pupils  reading  outside  the  work  of  the  school? 

17.  What  relation  is  there  between  pupils'  outside  reading  and  their 
success  in  various  school  subjects  ? 

18.  To  what  extent  is  there  correlation  between  the  departments  as 
shown  by  questions  like  the  following :    To  what  extent  are  teachers  in 
other   departments  teaching   English  ?     To  what  extent  does  drawing 
help  in  science,  manual  training,  household  arts?     To  what  extent  does 
history  illustrate  current  problems  ? 

19.  What  is  the  percentage  of  whole  number  entering  who  go  to 
college  ?     Percentage  of  graduates  who  go  to  college  ? 

20.  What  is  the  relation  of  success  in  college  to  scholarship  in  high 
school  ?     To  participation  in  student  activities  ? 


The  Organization  of  the  High  School       231 

21.  How  far  is  the  outside  reading  of  college  students  affected  by  the 
high  school  course  in  literature  ? 

22.  Classify  college  entrance  examination  questions  in  science  and 
mathematics  under,  (i)  questions  having  a  practical  application,  (2)  pure 
theory. 

REFERENCES 

BROWN,  J.  F.     The  American  High  School.     New  York,  1909. 

BURSTALL,  S.  A.  English  High  Schools  for  Girls;  their  Aims,  Organiza- 
tion, and  Management.  New  York,  1907. 

DAVENPORT,  EUGENE.     Education  for  Efficiency.     Boston,  1910. 

DEWEY,  JOHN.     Moral  Principles  in  Education.     Boston,  1909.     (River- 
side Educational  Monographs.) 
The  School  and  Society.     Chicago,  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1900. 

GRAY,  C.  T.     Variations  in  the  Grades  of  High  School  Pupils.     Baltimore, 

1913.  (Educational  Psychology  Monographs.) 
HOLLISTER,  H.  A.     High  School  Administration.     Boston,  1909. 
JOHNSTON,  C.  H.,  ed.     High  School  Education;  Professional  Treatment  of 

the  Administrative,  Supervisory,  and  Specifically  Pedagogical  Functions 
of  Secondary  Education.     New  York,  1912. 

MORRISON,  H.  C.,  et  al.  Some  Aspects  of  High-School  Instruction  and 
Administration.  (National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education. 

1914,  Vol.  13,  Pt.  i.) 

PERRY,  C.  A.     Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant.     New   York    Charities 

Publication  Committee,  1910.     (Russell  Sage  Foundation.) 
SACHS,  JULIUS.     The  American  Secondary  School  and  Some  of  its  Problems. 

New  York,  1912.     (Teachers'  Professional  Library.) 
STRAYER,  G.  D.,  and  THORNDIKE,  E.  L.     Educational  Administration; 

Quantitative  Studies.     New  York    1913. 
VAN  DENBURG,  J.  K.     Causes  of  the  Elimination  of  Students  in  Public 

Secondary  Schools  of  New  York  City.     Teachers  College  Publications, 

1911. 

Periodicals:  — 

Academic  and  Industrial  Efficiency.  M.  L.  Cooke.  Carnegie  Founda- 
tion, Bulletin  No.  5.  1009. 

Advisory  Systems  in  High  Schools.  J.  \V.  Raymer.  Educational 
Review,  44:466-491.  December,  1912. 

Better  Articulation  of  the  Parts  of  the  Public  School  System.  F.  F. 
Bunker.  Educational  Review,  47  :  249-268.  March,  1914. 

Committee  on  the  Articulation  of  High  School  and  College.  N.  E.  A. 
Proceedings  and  Addresses.  1912,  pp.  667-673. 


232  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

The  Distribution  of  Pupils  in  the  Public  High  Schools.     A.  J.  Inglis. 

Ed ucatio nal  Review,  46  :  344-350.     November,  1913. 
The  Gap  between  the  Elementary  and  the   Secondary  School.     T.  L. 

Wilson.     Educational  Review,  46  :  295-299.     October,  1913. 
Is   Scientific  Accuracy  possible  in  the  Measurement  of  the  Efficiency 

of  Instruction?      G.  D.   Strayer.      Education,  34:249-258.      De- 
cember, 1913. 
Junior  College  ;  or  Upward  Extension  of  the  High  School.     C.  L.  McLane, 

School  Review,  21  :  161-170.     March,  1913. 
Making    a    High    School    Programme.     M.    W.    Richardson.     School 

Review,  17:449-466.     September,  1909. 
Measurement  of  Efficiency  in  Elementary  and  Secondary  Schools.     F. 

E.  Spaulding.     Education,  34:225-248.     December,  1913. 
Organization  of  a  Large  High   School.     J.   A.   Bole.      School  Review, 

22:  i-n.     January,  1914. 
Plan   for   the  Reorganization   of    the   American    Public   High   School. 

Henry  E.  Brown.     School  Review,  22  :  289-301.     May,  1914. 
Progressive  High  School  Reorganization.     R.  A.    Mackie.     Education, 

33:420-427.     March,  1913. 

Reorganization  of  our  School  System.     J.  H.  Francis.     N.  E.  A.  Pro- 
ceedings and  Addresses.     1912,  pp.  368-376. 
Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  in  New  Hampshire.     H.   A. 

Brown.     School  Review,  22  :  145-156;  235-248.     March,  April,  1914. 
Reorganization  of  the  Grades  and  the  High  School.     E.  V.  Robinson. 

School  Review,  20:665-688.     December,  1912. 
Six-year  High  School.     George  Wheeler.      School  Review,  22 :  239-245. 

April,  1913. 
Studies  in  Secondary  Education  —  Salaries  and  Teaching  Conditions, 

Educational  Bi-Monthly.     February,  1914. 
A  Study  of  Education  in  Vermont.     Carnegie  Foundation,  Bulletin  No.  /. 

1914. 
Teaching  High  School  Pupils  how  to  Study.     E.  R.  Breslich.     School 

Review,  20:  505-515.     October,  1912. 
The  Worship  of  the  Standard.     W.  H.  Mearns.     N.  E.  A.  Proceedings 

and  Addresses.     1912,  pp.  193-200. 

Report  of  the  Committee  on  School  Inquiry,  Board  of  Estimate  and  Ap- 
portionment of  New  York  City,  Vol.  2,  pp.  61-219.     I9I4- 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education.     Economy  of  Time  in  Education  ;   Report  of 

the  Committee  of   the  National   Council  of   Education.     Bulletin 

No.  38,  1913. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   PRIVATE   SECONDARY   SCHOOL 

CHARACTERISTICS     OF     PRIVATE     SCHOOLS. —  A 

working  definition  of  the  term  "private  school"  would  be 
generally  given  and  generally  accepted  in  some  such  form  as 
this:  That  while  public  schools  are  supported  and  controlled 
by  the  state  government,  private  schools  are  self-supported 
and  free  of  government  control.  As  a  corollary  they  are  not 
open  to  all  comers,  but  tend  to  be  schools  attended  by  a  group 
or  class.  More  is  made  of  questions  of  personality  and  of  special 
aim. 

The  self-support  characteristic  of  private  schools  may  take 
either  one  of  two  forms.  A  private  school  may  be  a  com- 
mercial venture  supported  by  direct  payments  to  the  manager 
or  "  owner,"  or  it  may  be  supported  by  subscription  or  en- 
dowment, so  that  the  element  of  profit  is  more  or  less  elim- 
inated. The  first  form  has  comprehended,  perhaps,  the 
larger  part  of  the  private  school  group.  Its  characteristics 
are  of  course  well  known,  and  the  sentiment  of  Socrates 
against  it  generally  prevails.  Commercial  processes  introduce 
self-advertising,  often  cunningly  concealed  but  often  very 
blatant;  commercial  attitudes  of  bargain  and  dicker  encourage 
mutual  hostilities  and  the  taking  of  advantages  on  both  sides. 
These  things  are  unwholesome  between  teacher  and  taught. 
Moreover,  commercial  patronage  is  hardly  the  attitude  for  a 
true  seeker  of  instruction.  Yet  these  dangers  are  in  practice 
not  so  great  as  they  seem.  In  the  first  place,  there  are  saving 
and  antiseptic  influences  in  the  occupation  itself  which  meet 
and  repel  these  infections.  Just  as,  in  the  modem  world,  the 

233 


234  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

publication  of  books  and  newspapers,  or  the  production  of 
art  and  music,  is  left  solely  to  the  support  and  judgment  of 
the  market,  so  churches,  museums,  schools,  theaters  may 
and  do  appeal  to  direct  patronage  without  ruinous  results. 
And  there  are  also  many  counteracting  advantages  in  this 
form  of  organization.  Private- venture  schools  are  always 
very  close  to  the  true  demand  of  the  public;  what  people 
want,  they  know.  They  tend,  moreover,  to  collect  about 
interesting  and  effective  personalities.  Private  schools  get 
more  than  their  share  of  good  as  well  as  of  bad  teachers.  The 
relation  between  teacher  and  taught,  being  a  matter  of  free 
choice,  and  not  controlled  by  a  system  of  appointment,  tends 
to  be  personal  and  endearing.  Probably  the  most  permanent 
service  of  private  schools,  since  they  are  thus  flexible,  lies  in 
their  utility  as  experimental  schools.  Their  experiences 
serve  as  models  or  warnings  to  the  community.  Among 
what  may  be  called  the  "  marginal  activities  "  of  the  school 
organization,  private  effort  will  always  play  a  valued  part ; 
for  no  step  to  advance  in  education  has  ever  been  taken  with- 
out the  leadership  of  private  schools.  They  are  not  the  home 
of  lost  causes  and  impossible  loyalties;  they  work  in  advance 
of  the  main  body. 

Bat  though  at  present  all  lists  of  private  schools  are  domi- 
nated by  this  type,  yet  the  endowed  schools  seem  to  be  in- 
creasing and  are  perhaps  destined  to  play  a  leading  role  among 
private  schools  in  the  future.  They  are  more  permanent 
than  private-venture  schools,  they  have  longer  and  riper 
tradition,  they  have  generally  more  capital  and  resources, 
and  they  harmonize  \vith  the  modern  tendencies  to  com- 
bination and  to  large  enterprises.  The  endowed  private 
school  may  be  a  stately  institution,  indistinguishable  in  struc- 
ture and  character  from  a  large  public  school.  It  may  have 
a  long-descended  pedigree;  it  may  represent  a  religious  tradi- 
tion, or  a  much-loved  social  tradition;  it  may  have  an  honor- 
able history  of  educational  attainment.  It  is  by  its  per- 


The  Private  Secondary  School  235 

manence  emancipated  from  dangerous  commercial  traits, 
while  on  the  other  hand  it  is  free  to  follow,  without  confusion 
or  control,  its  special  task  or  special  aim.  Like  a  voluntary 
religious  organization,  such  schools  "  enjoy  the  immense 
advantages  of  freedom  of  association,  of  personal  initiative, 
of  individual  growth."  They  are  important  beyond  their 
number. 

VALUE  OF  PRIVATE  SCHOOLS.  —  Self-support,  per- 
sonal freedom  and  personal  care,  flexibility  of  organization, 
and  prompt  adjustments  being  the  virtues  of  the  private 
school,  it  will  soon  appear  that  the  private  school  counts 
much  more  in  some  parts  of  the  educational  field  than  in  others. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in  all  elementary  education,  in 
comparison  with  the  public  school,  the  argument  for  the  pri- 
vate school  amounts  to  very  little,  and  the  tendency  of  modern 
educational  evolution  is  all  against  it.  In  the  Report  of  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1910  it  is  stated 
93  per  cent  of  all  children  attending  school  in  the  United 
States  are  attending  elementary  schools  and  that  92.6  per 
cent  of  them  are  in  public  schools.  The  same  observation 
might  be  made  of  Germany  or  France.  To  find  any  con- 
siderable amount  of  private  elementary  work  one  must  look 
to  the  more  or  less  tolerated  religious  schools.  But  even  in 
countries  where  this  kind  of  school  exists  as  a  significant  part 
of  the  public  system  of  elementary  education,  it  is  more  and 
more  coming  under  government  control.  This  is  the  only 
important  type  of  private  elementary  school.  Other  motives 
for  private  elementary  work  produce  little  result. 

PRIVATE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.  —  A  brief  survey 
of  the  field  of  education  will  show  that  secondary  education 
is  the  special  home  of  the  private  school.  Among  private 
schools  originated  every  form  of  what  is  now  known  as  high- 
school  work  in  America.  A  large  fraction  of  it  is  still  done 
by  them,  probably  from  a.  fifth  to  a  quarter.  Nearly  the 
whole  of  secondary  education  in  England  up  to  1902  was  of 


236  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  private-school  type.  Even  in  Germany  and  France,  the 
secondary  schools,  though  under  strict  government  control, 
are  class  schools,  receiving  fees,  and  belonging  to  the  bourgeoisie 
in  type. 

In  Denmark  and  Norway,  in  Sweden  and  Finland,  the 
private  schools  are  of  special  importance  and  influence,  more 
particularly  as  regards  secondary  education.  In  all  these 
countries  the  state  leaving  examination  which  is  passed  at 
or  about  the  age  of  eighteen  is  the  only  portal  to  the  university. 
Candidates  are  prepared  for  it  either  (i)  in  state  schools,  in 
municipal  schools,  and  in  recognized  private  schools,  or  (2)  in 
schools  which  have  not  gained  or  perhaps  have  not  sought 
recognition,  in  private  courses,  and  by  private  tuition.  In 
the  latter  cases  they  are  called  privatists,  and  are  subjected 
to  a  somewhat  severer  test. 

These  two  leaving  examinations  are  the  medium  by  which 
the  recognition  of  private  schools  is  effected.  If,  in  buildings 
and  equipment,  in  curriculum,  efficiency  of  staff,  and  salaries, 
a  school  reach  a  satisfactory  standard,  it  is  allowed  to  hold 
the  leaving  examination  within  its  walls,  just  like  a  state 
school ;  and  its  masters,  in  the  presence  and  under  the  guidance 
of  a  government-appointed  censor  from  outside,  conduct  the 
viva  wee  part  of  the  examination  (a  specially  interesting  and 
important  feature  in  all  these  countries),  whereas  privatists 
have  their  examinations  both  written  and  oral  conducted  by 
an  examination  board  who  are  strangers  to  the  candidates. 
Such  private  recognized  schools  are  regarded  as  helping  to 
make  up  the  national  provision  of  secondary  education;  their 
statistics  are  found  alongside  those  of  the  state  schools ; 
masters  or  mistresses  from  the  one  kind  of  school  easily  pass 
into  service  of  the  other  —  from  the  private  school  to  the 
public  or  (less  frequently)  from  the  public  to  the  private,  - 
and  not  unfrequently  a  teacher  may  be  found  engaged  in 
both  kinds  of  schools  at  the  same  time.  Teachers  from  a 
public  school  are  as  often  as  not  found  acting  as  government 


The  Private  Secondary  School  237 

censors  at  the  examinations  in  a  private  school;  and  just  as 
often  teachers  in  a  private  school  act  as  government  censors 
at  a  public  school.  Thus  the  two  kinds  of  school  are  per- 
petually acting  and  reacting  on  one  another,  to  the  good  of 
both;  each  tends  to  impart  to  the  other  its  characteristic 
virtues  and  excellences;  and  the  two,  by  varying  methods, 
work  harmoniously  and  effectively  towards  the  same  goal  — 
are  indeed,  so  far  as  it  is  desirable,  welded  into  one. 

Even  if  in  time  more  of  our  American  work  goes  to  the  pub- 
lic high  schools,  still  there  are  some  legitimate  demands  for 
variety  in  secondary  school  life  which  various  forms  of  private 
school  must  always  be  called  upon  to  satisfy.  Some  things 
the  public  high  schools  would  not  do,  if  they  could,  or  could 
not,  if  they  would.  Some  of  these  demands  will  necessarily 
create  private  schools.  And  at  any  rate,  looking  at  the  matter 
from  another  angle,  as  long  as  there  are  private  schools,  for 
any  reason,  the  larger  part,  the  stronger  part,  and  the  best 
part  of  them  will  be  secondary  schools. 

Vocational  Schools.  —  The  needs  of  the  adolescent  are 
various  to  infinity.  The  possibilities  of  secondary  work  are 
therefore  legion.  They  may  be  roughly  classed  as  vital,  i.e. 
concerned  with  the  development  of  personality,  or  vocational, 
i.e.  concerned  with  the  conservation  of  that  personality  to  its 
life  work.  Of  these,  to  the  children,  the  most  conscious,  the 
most  imperative,  the  most  educating  are  the  vocational  pre- 
occupations. But  these  have  been,  however,  for  several 
generations  in  our  public  schools  strangely  misunderstood, 
misappreciated,  and  neglected.  Children  have  been  obliged 
to  seek  their  vocational  training  in  America  out  of  school. 
The  effect  is  naturally  the  well-known  early  departure  of 
American  children  from  schools  of  the  state.  Only  5  per  cent 
of  the  school  population  is  reported  to  the  Commissioner  in 
1909-1910,  as  attending  public  high  schools. 

Now  private  vocational  schools  not  so  reported  have  made 
up  for  a  large  amount  of  this  neglected  work.  For  example, 


238  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  "  business  colleges  "  and  schools  have  accomplished  much 
good  vocational  work.  Generally  they  have  been"  private 
ventures,  originating  spontaneously  out  of  the  pressing  need. 
Most  of  these  are  still  of  this  sort.  But  there  are  beginning 
to  be  private  endowed  schools  which  promise  still  more  in  the 
future.  And  the  college  and  university  courses  of  this  sort 
must  soon  be  reckoned  with.  Other  occupations  are  repre- 
sented in  the  community  by  private  schools.  The  schools  of 
music  and  other  arts,  whose  names  fill  up  the  educational 
directories  of  our  cities,  are  mainly  such.  They  originate  in  the 
demands  of  the  locality  and  are  private  ventures,  though  there 
are  some  with  private  endowments,  and  some  are  affiliated 
with  colleges  and  schools  with  endowments  not  under  govern- 
ment control.  They  are  exceedingly  numerous  and  well 
attended.  Handicrafts  are  taught  in  this  way  in  an  increas- 
ing number  of  schools,  e.g.  schools  of  telegraphy,  dressmaking, 
cooking,  pharmacy,  and  schools  with  a  more  comprehensive 
sweep  like  "  mothercraft  "  and  "  philanthropy."  There  are 
advanced  schools,  under  private  management,  but  growing  in 
publicity.  We  find  the  vocational  trade  schools  and  manual 
training  schools  of  a  general  type,  originating  in  private  en- 
dowment and  charging  fees,  but  of  great  public  power  and 
value.  We  find  great  schools  connected  with  special  indus- 
tries. We  find  trade  schools  connected  with  churches.  The 
whole  field  of  secondary  training  is  filled  with  vocational 
private  schools,  setting  an  example  to  the  public  schools, 
nowadays  gravitating  themselves  toward  the  public  school 
system,  but  to  be  reckoned  distinctly  as  part  of  the  creditable 
result  of  the  American  individuality  in  education  which  would 
be  seriously  missed,  if  lost  in  the  future,  and  which  is  embodied 
in  private  schools. 

Among  the  vocational  occupations  of  secondary  schools  is 
preparation  of  candidates  for  entrance  not  directly  into  the 
markets  of  life  but  into  higher  institutions  of  learning.  In 
this  class  one  might  reckon  candidates  for  government  service 


The  Private  Secondary  School  239 

and  other  occupations  protected  by  examination  or  certifica- 
tion. No  public  school  system  can  cover  this  ground  com- 
pletely. Army,  navy,  civil  service,  professional  and  technical 
schools,  scientific  work,  have  so  many  varying  needs  as  to 
create  a  large  body  to  give  private  preparation.  Special 
dexterities  imply  special  schooling.  Hence  the  need  here 
of  private  schools. 

Preparatory  Schools.  —  A  most  significant  group  of  schools 
in  America,  called  "  preparatory  schools,"  or  "  fitting  schools," 
has  originated  in  the  need  of  previous  preparation  for  the 
college  and  universities,  until  recently  themselves  private 
schools.  These  schools  have  many  special  intellectual  and 
social  ideals;  but  this  work,  though  actually,  for  historical 
reasons,  rather  specially  linguistic  and  theoretical,  has  been 
accepted  as  representing  several  essential  requirements  for 
secondary  culture.  They  have  thus  enjoyed  a  great  prestige ; 
and  have  been  used  to  determine  the  course  of  public  as  well 
as  private  secondary  education.  They  have  been  discussed 
and  standardized  by  committees  and  other  bodies  appointed 
for  this  purpose,  and  doubtless  exercise  a  great  and  whole- 
some influence  over  American  education. 

The  participation  of  the  public  high  schools  developed  in 
the  last  fifty  years  in  the  work  of  the  preparatory  or  fitting 
schools  of  America  has  been  of  great  service  to  education  in 
the  standardization  of  college  requirements,  and  in  the  move 
for  uniformity  as  against  the  somewhat  capricious  and  con- 
fused diversity  of  different  college  demands.  Private  and 
public  schools  have  worked  side  by  side,  and  the  massive 
power  of  the  public  school  has  made  itself  felt.  In  the  im- 
mediate future  public  schools  may  be  even  more  useful  in  a 
similar  way  ;  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  general  public,  they 
can  assure  the  colleges  and  universities,  as  private  schools 
cannot,  that  they  may  now  safely  admit  to  their  work,  with- 
out too  much  distinction  among  subjects  prepared  in  school, 
any  person  of  suitable  intellectual  stature  and  competency. 


240  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

But  great  as  are  the  hopes  for  the  public  school,  nevertheless, 
as  far  as  special  preparation  demanded  by  higher  institutions 
is  concerned,  this  will  probably  in  the  end  remain  a  factor 
most  stimulating  chiefly  to  the  creation  of  appropriate  private 
schools,  as  it  is  now  a  leading  interest  among  them. 

Another  form  of  usefulness  of  the  preparatory  schools  has 
been  collateral  among  the  groups  of  secondary  schools  in 
general.  Not  only  is  their  work  in  their  own  task  a  significant 
part  of  the  sum  total  of  secondary  education;  but  they  have 
also  influenced  the  theory  and  practice  of  all  other  secondary 
schools  about- them.  This  influence  counts  among  the  services 
of  private  schools  to  the  country.  Even  where  the  public 
high  schools  have  outdone  their  models,  the  private  schools 
have  after  all  many  times  set  the  fashion. 

Military  Schools.  —  Another  special  form  of  training 
deserves  mention  by  itself,  among  the  activities  of  private 
schools.  In  Europe  the  educational  effects  of  universal 
military  service  have  often  been  favorably  commented  upon. 
Even  where,  however,  this  service  is  universal  and  compul- 
sory, there  are  special  schools  for  vocational  training  of  officers. 
In  England,  with  certain  brilliant  exceptions,  this  work  is 
left  to  volunteer  effort.  In  America  we  have  always  had 
West  Point  and  Annapolis,  our  only  special  schools  to  look 
up  to  for  models  and  leadership.  But,  with  some  exceptions 
in  the  matter  of  drill  and  organization,  the  private  schools  in 
this  country  have  taken  over  this  matter  entirely.  The 
military  schools  of  this  country  are  private  schools.  Like 
all  private  schools  they  vary  in  efficiency;  but  the  best  of 
them  show  the  great  effects  of  a  vocational  ideal  of  a  high 
code  pursued  with  devotion.  It  is  maintained  in  a  recent 
article  that  the  military  situation  in  the  United  States  is 
distinctly  benefited  by  these  military  schools.  Whether 
this  belief  be  justified  or  not,  the  effects  of  their  training  on 
the  schools  and  pupils  are  justly  valued.  The  only  criticism 
offered  against  them  has  been  their  tendency,  owing  to  the 


The  Private  Secondary  School  241 

superior  efficiency  of  their  moral  training,  to  collect  difficult 
cases  in  them,  a  criticism  which  has  been  made  also  of  board- 
ing schools,  small  colleges,  and  all  private  schools. 

Denominational  Schools.  —  The  forms  of  private  school 
hitherto  considered  contemplate  school  chiefly  as  preparation 
for  life.  This  ideal,  however,  does  not  contain  the  whole 
case.  There  must  be  motives  for  the  creation  of  schools  in 
which  vocational  preparation  plays  a  less  prominent  part. 
School  years  are  branches  of  the  Tree  of  Life  not  less  than  of 
the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  and  in  their  ethical  and  spiritual 
experiences  must  be  reflected  ideals  of  great  influence  and 
worth.  There  is,  for  example,  the  religious  life,  very  hard 
to  provide  for  in  governmental  schools.  Governments  can 
in  modern  times  recognize  no  religious  body  above  another; 
the  religious  experience  must  be  left  to  church  and  home. 
Here  is  a  most  powerful  and  apparently  most  permanent 
argument  for  the  creation  of  private  schools.  All  religious 
bodies  feel  this  impulse.  Of  the  private  high  schools  dealt 
with  in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Education,  two 
thirds  are  conducted  by  religious  bodies.  A  large  part  of  the 
colleges  and  universities  in  the  United  States  are  either  under 
direct  control  of  some  religious  body  or  in  close  affiliation 
with  it.  The  Catholic  Education  Association,  for  example, 
has  on  its  roll  67  colleges,  16  seminaries,  980  schools.  The 
Protestant  denominations  are  not  backward.  There  are  even 
schools  intended  not  merely  to  be  non-sectarian,  but  carefully 
to  diminish  religion  as  life  experience.  All  this  is  necessarily 
private  school  work.  Modern  government  schools  must  ap- 
parently be  secular. 

SOCIAL  SELECTION.  —  But  there  are  other  life  expe- 
riences than  religion  which  governmental  schools  cannot  for- 
mally recognize  except  as  incidents  and  by-products  of  their 
history.  Among  them  arc  the  experiences,  the  ideals,  the 
habits,  associated  with  family  life  and  the  life  of  social  groups. 
On  the  basis  of  social  selection  there  are  reared  the  most 


242  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

famous  and  perhaps  the  best  of  the  private  schools.  The 
great  English  schools  represent  a  social  class.  There  are 
such  schools,  though  closely  under  government  supervision, 
in  France  and  Germany,  representing  social  distinction  as 
well  as  religion.  In  America,  while  we  recognize  that  our 
ideals,  our  ethics,  even  our  manners  and  customs,  must  in  the 
main  be  such  as  to  fit  us  to  belong  to  the  great  public  family 
of  which  we  are  all  proud,  yet  even  here  there  are  family 
groups  of  a  more  private  character,  which  seek  for  separateness 
and  distinction,  especially  in  education.  How  valuable  such 
things  may  be  is  a  matter  of  some  dispute.  The  doctrinaire 
democrat  is  apt  to  denounce  such  ambitions  ;  the  parent  face 
to  face  with  the  problem  of  his  son's  life  is  perhaps  apt  to 
overvalue  exactly  such  distinctions  as  are  cherished  in  private 
schools  in  some  quarters. 

The  discreet  American  need  not  take  sides.  He  will  re- 
member the  federal  constitution  and  the  country's  motto. 
At  any  rate,  in  the  ebbing  tide  of  family  life,  especially  in  the 
great  cities,  artificial  family  experiences  seem  now  called  for 
in  school  life;  in  many  situations  public  schools  may  and  do 
efficiently  perform  this  function,  yet  there  are  situations,  un- 
solvable  by  schools  open  to  all  comers,  which  must  be  met  by 
schools  of  private  effort.  Many  schools,  even  in  America, 
must  exist  which  intend  no  more  and  profess  nothing  else 
than  social  and  domestic  privacy.  These  schools  are  not 
necessarily  objectionable  or  of  no  service  to  the  state.  "  We 
begin,"  says  Burke,  "  our  public  affections  in  our  families." 
We  certainly  may  begin  them  in  such  a  private  and  secluded 
school,  which  is  after  all  full  of  corporate  spirit.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  the  academies  of  the  eighteenth  century  or 
the  boarding  schools  or  private  day  schools  of  our  own  time 
have  not  produced  their  share  of  public  servants. 

The  scouting  parties  and  forlorn  hopes  in  the  warfare  of 
the  Liberation  of  Humanity  belong  to  private  schools.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  there  is  an  ambiguity  in  the  phrase 


The  Private  Secondary  ScJiool  243 

"  public  service  " ;  it  connotes  both  what  is  done  for  the  public 
and  what  is  done  by  it.  The  main  question  about  any  educa- 
tional institution  therefore  is  not,  who  pays  for  it,  but  what  it 
is  worth  to  the  common  good.  "  Modern  states,"  says  the 
Commissioner,  "  shall  certainly  see  to  it  that  any  citizen  of 
any  age  who  seeks  instruction  in  any  subject  shall  find  in- 
struction provided  for  him,  not  necessarily  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, but  made  actually  available  for  him  by  ways  that  are 
in  his  reach."  In  aiding  citizens  to  forms  of  education  not 
yet  or  not  at  all  within  reach  of  the  public  school,  the  private 
school  has  its  permanent  meaning. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1 .  How  did  private  schools  originate  in  Continental  Europe  ?     How 
in  England  ?     How  in  America  ? 

2.  What  justification  of    private  schools    is  given  by  educational 
theorists,  beginning  with  Quintilian  ? 

3.  To  what  extent  were  the  academies,  especially  those  of  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  private  schools  ? 

4.  Was  there  greater  justification  or  need  of  private  schools  in  the 
United  States  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  than  there  is  in 
the  twentieth  ? 

5.  What  influence  has  the  private  school  exerted  on  the  development 
of  the  curriculum  ?     Of  method  ? 

6.  What  value  does  the  private  school  have  for  the  pupil  ? 

7.  What  value  does  it  have  for  society  ? 

8.  What  are  the  chief  defects  or  difficulties  in  the  work  of  the  private 
school ? 

Q.    Is  there  greater  need  for  private  secondary  schools  than  for  private 
elementary  schools  ? 

10.  Is  the  government  justified  in  demanding  the  right  of  inspection 
of  private  schools  ? 

11.  Is  the  government  ever  to  be  justified  in  demanding  the  suppression 
of  private  schools  as  a  type  ? 

12.  Would  the  standardization  of  private  schools  on  the  same  basis 
as  that  of  public  schools  be  an  advantage  ? 

13.  Is  there  a  greater  justification  for  private  schools  in  countries 
like  Germany  and  France  than  there  is  in  the  United  States  ?     In  Eng- 
land than  in  the  United  States? 


244  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

REFERENCES 

BROWN,  E.  E.     The  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools.     (Historical.)    New 

York,  1903. 
BURSTALL,  S.  A.    Education  of  Girls  in  America,  Chap.  III.     New  York, 

1894. 

English  High  School  for  Girls.     New  York,  1907. 
Impressions  of  American  Education,  Chap.  II.     New  York,  1909. 
CHANCELLOR,  W.  E.     Our  Schools,  Chap.  X.     Boston,  1904. 
JACKSON,  G.  L.     History  of  Secondary  Curriculum  since  the  Renaissance, 

in  Johnson's  High  School  Education,   Chap.   III.      Applicable  to 

private  school  curricula.     (Historical.)     New  York,  1912. 
Journal  of  Education,  May,  1893.     The  number  of  private  schools  was 

estimated  at  from  10,000  to  20,000. 
Loos,  J.     Enzyklopddischcs  Handbuch  dcr  Erzienhungskundc,  s.v.  Pri- 

vatschulen.     Also  Lander  ziehungsheime. 
LYTTLETON,  REV.  HON.  CANON.     How  State  Organizations  will  a/ect  the 

Interest  of  existing  Public  and  Private  Schools.     Paper  at  Conference 

of  the  Teachers'  Guild,  Oxford,  1893. 
NORWOOD,  C.,  and  HOPE,  A.  H.     Higher  Education  of  Boys  in  England. 

(English  Public  Schools.)     London,  1909. 
PHELPS,  W.  L.     Teaching  in  School  and  College,  pp.  41-50,  on  Private 

School  Teaching  and  Scholarship.     New  York,  1912. 
Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1911,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  XXXI. 

Public  and  Private  High  Schools ;  also  each  annual  Report. 
Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Secondary  Education,  Vol.  VII, 

p.  455.     London,  1895. 
SACHS,   J.      The   American  Secondary   School,    Part   II.      New   York, 

1912. 
SCOTT,  R.  P.,  and  others.     What  is  Secondary  Education?     Chap.  XIX. 

London,  1899. 

The  Private  Schoolmaster.     A  monthly  published  in  London. 
THORNTON,  J.  S.     Education  in  Northern  Europe ;    The  State  and  the 

Private  School.     Educational  Times,  Vol.  LVIII,  pp.  482-483. 
Facts  and  Opinions  from  Public  Men  on  Private  Schools,  1893-1894. 

A  paper  compiled  for  the  Private  Schools  Association. 
Public  Schools  and  Private  in  the  North  of  Europe.     English  Special 

Reports,  Vol.  XVII,  1907. 
TWING,  C.  F.     History  of  Higher  Education  in  America.     New  York, 

1906. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education.     Public  and  Private  High  Schools.     Bulletin 

No.  22,  1912.     Washington. 


The  Private  Secondary  School  245 

WATSON,  FOSTER.  English  Grammar  Schools  to  1660,  p.  156  sqq. 
Cambridge,  1,908. 

Beginnings  of  the  Teaching  of  Modern  Subjects  in  England.  London, 
1909. 

Unlicensed  Nonconformist  Schoolmasters,  1662  onwards.  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  September,  1902. 


CHAPTER  VII 
PSYCHOLOGY  AND   HYGIENE  OF   ADOLESCENCE 

PHYSIOLOGICAL  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  ADOLES- 
CENT PERIOD.  —  The  period  of  secondary  education  coin- 
cides very  closely  with  the  first  half  of  that  term  of  years 
between  the  ages  12  to  14  and  maturity,  which  is  known  as  the 
period  of  adolescence  (Latin,  adolescere,  to  grow  up).  The 
initial  stage  of  adolescence,  the  period  of  puberty  (Latin, 
puber,  pubes,  grown  up),  is  that  stage  of  physical  development 
at  which  an  individual  first  becomes  capable  of  begetting  or 
bearing  children,  and  this  maturing  of  sex  functions  affords 
the  essential  and  salient  cue  for  the  interpretation,  not  only 
of  the  physical  but  also  of  the  mental  and  moral  development 
of  the  entire  adolescent  period.  Adolescence  is,  then,  to  be 
regarded  as  a  period  of  marked  and  significant  developmental 
growth  —  a  growth  both  of  body  and  of  mind. 

Biologically,  then,  the  individual  becomes,  during  the 
period  from  puberty  to  maturity,  capable  of  undertaking  his 
part  in  the  perpetuation  of  the  race.  So  rapid  and  so  far- 
reaching  are  the  alterations  effected  in  bodily  structure  and 
in  mental  traits  that  they  may  be  fitly  compared  with  those 
still  more  rapid  and  significant  developmental  phenomena 
observable  during  gestation  and  early  infancy,  so  that  it 
may  be  said,  as  Rousseau  has  phrased  it,  that  "  We  are  born 
twice,  once  to  exist  and  again  to  live;  once  as  to  species  and 
again  with  regard  to  sex."  1  And  it  follows  that  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  understand  the  high  school  pupil  or  to  elaborate 
any  interpretative  theory  of  adolescence  save  by  reference 
to  this  fundamental  underlying  fact  that  adolescence  is  the 
period  of  life  when  sex  functions  mature. 
1  Emilc,  Book  IV. 
246 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       247 


The  onset  of  puberty  varies  in  time.  Chronologically,  it 
is  customary  to  assign  the  appearance  of  puberty  to  the 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  year  in  girls  and  to  the  fourteenth  year 
in  boys.  However,  every  extended  investigation  that  has  been 
conducted  has  shown  that  these  are  but  average  figures.  Thus, 
some  boys  are  pubescent  as  early  as  the  tenth  year,  others  not 
until  as  late  as  the  eighteenth  year  (Table  i).1  Analogous 
figures  for  the  first  time  of  the  first  appearance  of  puberty 
in  girls  (Table  2)  2  reveal  much  the  same  range  of  variability. 

TABLE   i 

VARIATION  IN  PUBESCENCE  or  4800  BOYS  IN  A  NEW  YORK 
HIGH  SCHOOL  (CRAMPTON) 


MEDIAN  AGE 

(APPROX.) 

IMMATURE  OR 
PREPUBESCENT 

MATURING  OR 
PUBESCENT 

MATURE  OR 
POSTPUBESCENT 

12.75 
I3-25 
13-75 

69% 

55 
4i 

25% 
26 
28 

6% 
18 

31 

I4-25 
14-75 

26 
16 

28 
24 

46 
60 

I5-25 

9 

2O 

70 

15-75 
16.25 

16.75 

5 

2 

I 

IO 

4 
4 

85 

93 
95 

I7-25 

0 

2 

98 

17-75 

o 

O 

100 

1  See  particularly  the  results  published  by  C.  W.  Crampton,  M.D.     The  In- 
fluence of  Physiological  Age  on  Scholarship,  Psych.  Clinic,  i  :  1907,  115-120; 
also  Anatomical  or  Physiological  Age  versus  Chronological  Age,  Pcd.  Sem.,  15  : 
1908,  230-237,  and  Physiological  Age  —  A  Fundamental  Principle,  Amcr.  Phys. 
Ed uc.  Rev.,  13:  1908,  141-154,  214-227,  268-283,  345-358. 

2  A.  Marro,  La  Pubcrlc  clic:  I'Homnie  d  chcz  la  Femme.     (Translated  from  the 
2d  Italian  edition),  Paris,  1902.     See  especially  p.  22. 


248  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


TABLE   2 

DATE  OF  ONSET  OF  PUBERTY  IN  261  GIRLS,  OBSERVED  BY 

MARRO 


Year  .  .  10 
Number    i 

ii 
6 

12 

16 

13 
34 

14 
61 

15 
54 

16 

40 

17 
29 

18 

12 

19 

4 

20 

2 

21 
2 

Variability  is  itself   Characteristic  of   the   Period.  —  The 

individual  variability  here  revealed  in  the  date  of  entrance 
into  the  adolescent  period  is  a  phenomenon  that  is  equally 
evident  in  the  other  physical  and  mental  changes  of  the 
period.  That  is  to  say,  the  range  of  differences  between  in- 
dividuals with  respect  to  any  trait  is  much  greater  during 
adolescence  than  during  childhood.  Indeed,  so  variable  are 
many  of  the  signs  of  adolescence  as  to  render  generalization 
about  them  either  difficult  or  at  least  perplexing]  when  the 
individual  pupil  is  under  consideration.  This  accentuation 
of  individual  differences  during  the  high  school  period  has 
led  to  the  conviction  that  the  educational  machinery  of  the 
secondary  school  should  possess  a  reasonable  amount  of  flexi- 
bility, that  more  heed  must  be  given  than  in  the  elementary 
school  to  the  needs  of  the  individual  pupil  in  curriculum, 
method,  pace  of  work,  and  in  similar  matters. 

Physiological  Age.  —  The  variability  just  cited  in  the  date 
of  onset  of  puberty  affords  us  the  concept  of  "  physio- 
logical age."  A  pupil's  physiological  age  is  determined  by 
the  stage  of  physiological  development  he  has  attained.  We 
have  already  seen  that  his  physiological  age  may  or  may  not 
correspond  with  his  chronological  age.  In  a  similar  manner, 
a  pupil's  psychological  age  corresponds  to  the  stage  of  mental 
development  he  has  attained.  Finally,  his  "  pedagogical 
age  "  is  given  by  his  status  or  grade  in  the  school  system. 

The  Concept  of  Retardation  and  Acceleration.  — One  of  the 
most  interesting  problems  raised  by  recent  investigation 
relates  to  the  correspondence  or  correlation  between  these 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       249 

several  "  ages."  A  pupil  may,  for  example,  exhibit  either 
" retardation  "  or  "acceleration  "  in  any  one  of  these  ages  when 
it  is  related  to  any  other  one  of  them.  It  has  been  common 
to  speak  of  retardation  when  pedagogical  age  is  behind  chrono- 
logical age,  but  we  may  also  find  other  forms  of  retardation  — 
physiological,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  pupils  who  enter 
puberty  after  15. 

Relation  of  Physiological  Age  to  Success  in  High  School. 
-  The  relation  of  physiological  age  to  success  or  fail- 
ure in  high  school  work  has  been  investigated  of  late, 
though  with  somewhat  conflicting  results.  Crampton  1  as- 
serts that  in  the  high  school  the  immature  (prepubescent) 
boys  at  all  ages  exhibit  many  more  instances  of  failure  in 
school  work  than  do  the  mature  boys.2  The  more  recent 
work  of  Dr.  W.  L.  Foster  3  shows  that  one  third  of  the  boys 
entering  New  York  high  schools  are  discharged  during  the 
first  term,  but  that  these  discharges  are  reduced  by  from  7 
to  n  per  cent  when  entering  pupils  are  placed  in  sections  or 
groups  of  like  physiological  age,  based  on  degree  of  pubescence. 
The  explanation  offered  by  Foster  is  that  the  boys  then  find 
their  school  associations  "  pleasanter  "  and  tend  to  stay  in 
school  for  a  longer  time. 

Inspection  of  Foster's  tables  shows  that,  in  a  class  of  295 
pupils  sorted  into  eight  groups  by  physiological  age,4  of  58 

1  Fed.  Sem.,  15  :  1908,  230-237. 

-  On  the  contrary,  in  the  elementary  grades  in  New  York  City,  there  are, 
according  to  the  same  investigator,  in  grades  5c  to  ya,  thousands  of  pupils  who 
are  physiologically  mature,  but  who  are  deficient  in  scholarship.  These  boys 
are  naturally  poor  scholars,  who  are  kept  in  schools  by  the  compulsory  educa- 
tion laws  and  who  find  the  school  work  particularly  trying  and  irksome. 

3  Physiological  Age  as  a  Basis  for  the  Classification  of  Pupils  entering  the 
High  School,  Psych.  Clinic,  4:  1910,  83-88. 

4  The  sorting  was  accomplished  by  making  a  direct  examination  of  the  degree 
of  pubescence,  but  the  author  believes  that  the  relation  of  pubescence  and  height 
is  so  close  that  a  practical  grouping  could  be  made  on  the  basis  of  height  alone. 
However,  the  natural  range  of  variation  in  height  is  so  great  and  the  amount  of 
overlapping  of  heights  in  Foster's  own  groups  was  so  great  as  to  cast  doubts 
upon  the  feasibility  of  so  simple  a  procedure. 


250  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

discharges,  33  were  in  the  four  most  mature  groups;  of  58 
failures,  40  were  in  the  four  most  mature  groups;  while  of 
179  promotions,  100  were  in  the  four  least  mature  groups. 
These  results  flatly  contradict  Crampton's  generalization. 
All  in  all,  more  investigation  is  needed  of  the  interrelationships 
of  the  several  "  ages,"  with  special  reference  to  the  pupils 
entering  the  secondary  school. 

Foster  says  distinctly:  "  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  boy  of 
Class  I  (the  most  mature  group)  will  never  be  first  in  scholar- 
ship." And  for  this  he  offers  at  least  a  partial  explanation: 
"  Many  of  them  were  delayed  in  their  progress  at  school  or 
by  circumstances  at  home.  Going  to  work  is  usually  out  of 
the  question  for  a  small  boy,  and  in  social  affairs  and  in  athletics 
he  is  not  at  all  successful.  The  influences  that  tempt  the  big 
fellow  to  neglect  school  duties  do  not  have  the  same  force 
against  the  smaller  boy."  Again,  some  of  the  big  boys  en- 
ter the  high  school  a  year  or  more  after  graduation  from  the 
elementary  school;  others  of  them  are  undoubtedly  innately 
dull  —  a  statement  that  raises  the  query  whether  the  apparent 
good  that  resulted  from  the  segregation  may  not  have  been 
due  to  a  grouping  of  psychological  age  after  all. 

Aside  from  these  bodily  changes  directly  connected  with 
the  maturing  of  sex,  the  most  marked  physical  sign  of  early 
adolescence  is  the  augmented  rate  of  bodily  growth. 

Growth  in  Height  and  Weight.  —  Measurements  of  the 
height  of  some  88,000  American  school  children  and  of 
the  weight  of  nearly  the  same  number  have  afforded  the 
valuable  statistics  of  growth  reproduced  in  Tables  3  and  4.1 

1  These  norms  of  stature  have  been  calculated  by  Boas  (Report  Commissioner 
of  Educ.,  1896-7,  ii,  1541-1599)  from  studies  by  various  investigators  of  school 
children  in  Boston,  St.  Louis,  Milwaukee,  Toronto,  and  Oakland,  Cal.  The 
same  averages  converted  into  inches  are  published  by  F.  Burk  (Amcr.  Jour,  of 
Psych.,  9  :  1897-8,  253),  from  whose  article  the  norms  of  weight  calculated  for 
Boston,  St.  Louis,  and  Milwaukee  children  have  been  taken.  Curves  showing 
the  distribution  by  percentiles  of  the  height  and  weight  of  children  of  both 
sexes  for  the  ages  4  to  18  have  been  issued  by  F.  W.  Smedley  (Rcpt.  Dept.  Child 
Study,  Chicago,  No.  3),  and  are  reproduced  in  part  by  Whipple  (Manual  of 
Mental  Tests,  2<\.  ed.). 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       251 

TABLE   3 
AVERAGE  STATURE  OF  AMERICAN  CHILDREN,  IN  CENTIMETERS 


I 

Age   ...   5.5 

6-5 

7-5 

8-5 

9-5 

10.5 

"•5 

Boys  .  .  .  105.90 

111.58 

116.83 

122.04 

126.91 

131.78 

136.20 

Girls  .  .  .  104.88 

110.08 

116.08 

121.  21 

126.14 

131.27 

136.62 

Age  ...   12.5 

13-5 

14-5 

15-5 

16.5 

17-5 

18.5 

Boys  .  .  .  140.74 

146.00 

152.39 

I59-72 

164.90 

168.91 

171.07 

Girls  .  .  .  142.52 

148.69 

I53-50 

156.50  !  158.03 

I59-I4 

I 

TABLE  4 
AVERAGE  WEIGHT  OF  AMERICAN  CHILDREN,  IN  KILOGRAMS 


Age       .     .     6.5 

7-5 

8-5 

9-5 

10.5 

".  S 

12-5 

13-5 

14-5 

Boys      .      .  20.50 

22.45 

24.72 

27.03 

29.66 

32.07 

34.88 

38.46 

43.18 

Girls      .      .  19.69 

21.64 

23.81 

26.03 

28.53 

31-52 

35-70 

40.23 

44-59 

Age        .     .  15.5 

16.5 

17-5 

Boys      .     .  48.72 

54-88 

Girls      .     .  48.40 

50-94 

52-34 

It  will  be  seen  that  boys  are  slightly  taller  and  heavier  than 
girls  of  the  same  age  during  childhood  and  up  to  just  before 
the  onset  of  puberty,  whereas  girls  are  taller  than  boys  be- 
tween the  ages  11.5  and  14.5  and  heavier  than  boys  between 
the  ages  12.5  and  14.5.  This  crossing  of  the  curves  of  growth 
of  the  two  sexes  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  acceleration  of 
growth  which  ushers  in  adolescence  comes  earlier  in  girls 
than  in  boys.  Boys,  however,  overtake  girls,  once  they  reach 
their  own  period  of  acceleration,  and,  since  they  continue  to 
grow  at  an  accelerated  rate  for  a  longer  period,  come  ulti- 
mately to  exceed  girls  by  a  greater  amount  than  in  childhood. 
A  similar  phenomenon  appears  in  other  anthropometric 
measurements,  e.g.  that  of  vital  capacity,  and  of  strength  of 


252  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

grip,  though  in  these  other  cases  the  accelerated  growth  in 
girls  does  not  happen  to  be  sufficient  to  bring  about  an  actual 
crossing  of  the  curves  of  the  two  sexes. 

The  period  of  most  rapid  growth  does  not,  as  has  sometimes 
been  said,  take  place  just  before  puberty,  for  when  pupils 
are  divided  into  groups  according  to  degree  of  physiological 
maturity,  it  is  found  that  prepubescents  grow  slowly  in  height, 
weight,  and  strength.  On  the  contrary,  the  year  of  accelerated 
growth  in  all  these  respects  is  the  first  year  of  postpubescence, 
regardless  of  its  chronological  relations.1 

Growth  and  Health.  —  While  it  is  true  that  for  some 
individuals,  more  especially  for  some  girls,  the  pubertal  period 
is  attended  with  ill  health  and  fragile  physique,  the  evidence 
of  vital  statistics  shows  clearly  that  these  cases  are  exceptions 
to  the  rule.  Hartwell's  study  of  the  death  rate  for  the  city 
of  Boston  showed  that  the  period  of  pubertal  change  is  the 
period  of  lowest  death  rate,  while  the  commission  headed  by 
Axel  Key,2  that  examined  15,000  boys  and  3000  girls  in 
Swedish  schools,  found  that  capacity  to  resist  chronic  diseases 
was  highest  when  growth  was  most  rapid,  and  that  the  seven- 
teenth year  was  the  most  healthy,  the  thirteenth  and  eight- 
eenth relatively  sickly.  The  indications  are,  therefore,  that 
early  adolescence  is  a  period  of  strong  vitality. 

Growth  by  Parts.  —  When  we  examine  the  growth  of  the 
different  organs  and  structures  of  the  body,  we  find  that 
they  participate  to  a  very  unequal  extent  in  the  rapid  growth 
of  adolescence.  Moreover,  the  periods  of  most  rapid  growth, 
the  nascent  periods,  of  different  organs  do  not  coincide.  And 
finally,  organs  differ  in  the  duration  of  their  periods  of  growth. 
Instances  of  these  principles  are  given  below,  and  many  more 
might  be  adduced  to  show  that  growth  is  "by  parts,"  not 

1  See  Crampton,  Psych.  Clinic,  i  :  1907,  115-120. 

2  This  report  is  available,  in  German,  in  L.  Burgerstein's  Schiilhygicnische 
Untersuchungen.     Hamburg,  1889.     See  also  F.  Burk,  Growth  of  Children  in 
Height  and  Weight,  Anur.  J.  of  Psych.,  9  :  1897-1898,  253  ff.,  esp.  286-295. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       253 

symmetrical  and  proportionate  increase  in  size  of  the  body 
as  a  whole.  It  is  tempting,  and  doubtless  justifiable,  to  sup- 
pose that  the  central  nervous  system  likewise  matures  un- 
evenly and  that  we  have  a  corresponding  growth  by  parts  in 
mental  life,  with  nascent  periods  for  specific  traits  and  ca- 
pacities. 

Growth  of  the  Bones.  —  The  bones  grow  longer  and 
thicker  and  undergo  important  changes  in  their  constitution, 
particularly  noticeable  in  the  completion  of  the  process  of 
ossification,1  e.g.  in  the  bones  of  the  skull,  and  in  the  joining 
of  the  epiphyses  of  numerous  important  bones,  e.g.  the  hu- 
merus,  femur,  tibia,  scapula. 

The  bone  growth  of  puberty  is  not  simple  enlargement, 
but,  in  many  instances,  involves  alterations  in  shape  and  pro- 
portions. Thus,  chest  growth  is  chiefly  in  a  lateral  direction; 
growth  in  height  is  largely  due  to  lengthening  of  the  thigh 
bones;  the  pelvis,  at  least  in  girls,  is  greatly  modified  in  shape; 
in  the  head,  the  face  lengthens  by  as  much  as  an  inch;  the 
interocular  distance  increases  as  the  face  broadens  ;  the  sec- 
ond dentition  is  completed;  the  lower  jaw  becomes  heavier, 
the  nose  longer  and  more  prominent,  while  the  nasion  fills  in. 
These  changes  combine  with  changes  in  muscular  develop- 
ment to  bring  about  decided  changes  in  facial  expression. 

Hygiene  of  Bone  Growth.  —  Apparently,  the  system  de- 
mands a  special  supply  of  mineral  matter,  particularly  of 
lime,  at  this  time.  This  demand  is  usually  held  to  account 
for  the  "  lime-hunger  "  of  pupils  who  eat  chalk,  and  even  plas- 
ter of  Paris  or  mortar.  Too  rapid  growth  of  the  bones  is  also 
held  to  account  for  "  growing  pains,"  either  because  the  ep- 
iphyses, or  centers  of  growth  in  the  bones,  become  inflamed,  or 

1  It  has  been  proposed  to  use  this  phenomenon  as  a  basis  for  the  classification 
of  children  into  different  physiological  ages.  The  work  thus  far  done,  however, 
applies  primarily  to  infancy  and  childhood  up  to  the  twelfth  year.  For  X-ray 
photographs  of  the  progressive  ossification  of  the  small  bones  of  the  wrist, 
see  T.  M.  Rotch,  M.I).,  Roentgen  Ray  Methods  Applied  to  the  Grading  of 
Early  Life,  Proc.  4th  Cong.  Amcr.  School  Hyg.  Assoc.,  1910,  pp.  184-208. 


254  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

because  the  bones  grow  faster  than  the  muscles  and  thus  cause 
abnormal  tension  and  perhaps  interference  with  the  blood 
supply.  Since  bone  growth  is  affected  by  posture  and  mus- 
cular strains  as  well  as  by  nutritive  supply,  it  follows,  ac- 
cording to  Hall,1  that  "  too  high  pillows,  sleeping  in  one 
position,  ill-adjusted  seats  at  school  or  on  the  bicycle,  lacing, 
occupations  that  strain  or  require  unnatural  postures,  are 
especially  to  be  avoided  at  this  age." 

Growth  of  the  Muscles.  —  The  muscles  participate  exten- 
sively in  the  rapid  growth  of  puberty  ;  thus,  at  8  years 
they  form  27.2  per  cent  of  the  total  body  weight,  but  at  15 
years,  32.6  per  cent,  and  at  16  years,  44.2  per  cent.  The 
clumsiness  so  characteristic  of  adolescent  boys  is  perhaps 
due  in  part  to  inequalities  of  muscle  growth,  either  because 
the  muscles  grow  faster  than  the  bones  to  which  they  are 
attached  or  because  the  musculature  develops  at  an  unequal 
rate  in  its  various  parts. 

Growth  of  Heart  and  Arteries.  —  The  heart  muscles  in- 
crease in  size  and  in  number  of  contractile  fibers,  so  that 
the  volume  of  this  organ  is  radically  increased  in  proportion 
to  the  lumen  of  the  arteries  through  which  it  forces  the  blood 
-  the  ratio  of  heart  to  arteries  being  25  :  20  at  birth,  but 
140  :  50  at  puberty  and  290:  61  at  full  maturity,  according  to 
the  measurements  of  Landois.  The  effect  of  this  growth  of 
the  heart  is  in  all  probability  to  produce  a  heightening  of 
blood  pressure  at  puberty,  and  there  is  evidence  that  the 
earlier  and  more  decided  this  growth,  the  earlier,  stronger, 
and  more  complete  is  the  development  of  puberty. 

These  changes  in  arterial  pressure,  together  with  changes 
in  the  specific  gravity  of  the  blood  (at  least  in  girls)  and  the 
slight  rise  in  bodily  temperature  (about  0.5°  F.),  are  all  tokens 
of  the  extension  of  the  circulatory  system  to  supply  new  struc- 
tures and  new  bodily  functions,  of  the  need  of  irrigating  an 
increased  musculature,  and  of  the  increase  of  metabolism 

1  Adolescence,  Vol.  I,  p.  82. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       255 

(assimilation  and  dissimilation  of  tissue)  connected  with  the 
general  physiological  "  stir- up  "  of  the  period. 

Circulatory  Disturbances.  —  Like  all  the  other  phenomena 
of  adolescent  growth,  there  is  here,  too,  a  noticeably  in- 
creased individual  variation,  while  temporary  functional  dis- 
turbances are  not  at  all  uncommon.  Sudden  and  unac- 
countable fluctuation  in  the  rate  of  the  pulse,  palpitation 
of  the  heart,  and  frequent  or  habitual  headaches  are  often 
reported  during  pubertal  growth.  The  anemia  and  chlorosis 
(green  sickness)  of  adolescent  girls  are  other  all  too  charac- 
teristic functional  disturbances  of  adolescence.  Thus,  Key 
found  habitual  headache  in  13.5  per  cent  of  boys  and  36.1 
per  cent  of  girls  and  symptoms  of  chlorosis  in  12.7  per  cent 
of  boys  and  35.5  per  cent  of  girls.  Somewhat  smaller  per- 
centages are  reported  by  Hertel  from  the  examination  of 
children  n  to  14  years  old  at  Copenhagen. 

Growth  of  the  Lungs.  —  Though  the  growth  of  the  heart 
tends  to  lessen  the  chest  capacity,  this  reduction  is  more 
than  compensated  for  by  the  enlargement  of  the  thoracic 
cavity  already  mentioned.  By  means  of  the  spirometer, 
measurements  may  be  taken  of  the  "  breathing  capacity,"  : 
—  also  termed  the  "  differential  capacity  "  or  the  u  vital  capac- 
ity," —  i.e.  the  maximal  amount  of  air  that  can  be  exhaled 
after  a  maximal  inhalation.  This  capacity,  taken  by  itself, 
or  expressed  in  its  relation  to  bodily  weight  (the  "  vital  in- 
dex "),  furnishes  a  valuable  index  of  general  vitality.  Meas- 
urements of  school  children  show  that  the  vital  capacity  of 
girls  increases  rapidly  from  12  to  14,  thence  slowly  until  20, 
while  that  of  boys  increases  rapidly  from  14  to  about  19.5 
years.2 

Training  for  Vital  Capacity.  --  Vital  capacity,  perhaps 
more  than  any  other  physical  capacity,  may  be  greatly  in- 

1  When  the  estimated  air  remaining  in  the  lungs,  the  "residual  air,"  is  added, 
the  total  gives  the  "lung  capacity." 

2  See  G.  M.  Whipple,  Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,  1914,  Test  5. 


256  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

creased  by  suitable  exercise  and  training.  Since,  then,  full 
development  of  chest  and  lung  is  so  obviously  desirable  (as 
an  adjunct  in  endurance  under  effort,  in  resistance  to  disease, 
etc.),  the  physical  training  work  in  every  secondary  school 
should  be  so  arranged  as  to  secure  maximal  chest  develop- 
ment and  habitual  good  bodily  posture. 

Changes  in  the  Voice.  —  Just  as  the  cries,  clucks,  chirps, 
and  all  the  other  various  equivalents  of  voice  found  in  animals 
may  be  observed  to  alter  at  the  mating  season,  or  perhaps  to 
be  heard  only  then,  so,  too,  alteration  in  voice  is  one  of  the 
most  obvious  and  characteristic  symptoms  of  the  pubertal 
period. 

In  boys  the  growth  of  the  larynx,  outwardly  visible  in  the 
increased  prominence  of  the  Adam's  apple,  with  the  correla- 
tive elongation  of  the  vocal  cords  to  about  double  their  former 
length,  produces  a  drop  in  the  pitch  of  the  voice  of  approxi- 
mately an  octave.  In  girls  a  similar,  but  less  marked,  change 
may  be  noted :  the  drop  in  pitch  is  slight,  but  the  change  to  a 
richer  and  fuller  timbre  is  unmistakable. 

Period  of  Mutation.  —  In  boys  this  process  of  "  muta- 
tion," as  it  is  termed,  may  begin  as  early  as  12,  or  not  for 
three  or  four  years  later.  As  it  ordinarily  takes  about  two 
years  for  the  voice  to  become  established  in  the  lower  register, 
some  boys  may  sing  treble  even  up  to  the  age  of  19.  During 
mutation  the  voice  is  often  rough  and  hoarse  and  char- 
acterized by  the  well-known  "  breaks  "  in  pitch.  Hall 
thinks  that,  with  the  structural  alteration  of  the  vocal 
organs,  there  appears  "  a  new  vocal  consciousness,"  and 
that  pubescent  boys  delight  to  experiment  with  their  voice, 
especially  "  to  yell  and  indulge  in  vocal  gymnastics  of  a 
drastic  kind." 

Hygiene  and  Training  of  the  Voice.  -  -  The  desirability 
of  using  the  voice  in  singing  during  its  mutation  has  been  a 
matter  of  debate  among  teachers  of  vocal  music.  Paulsen 
found  that  75  per  cent  of  adolescent  boys  could  not  control 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       257 

the  voice  during  mutation,  but  MacKenzie  J  examined  500 
choir  boys  14  to  18  years  old  and  found  the  voice  really 
"  cracked  "  in  only  17  per  cent.  The  best  opinion  appears 
to  coincide  with  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  MacKenzie  that  sing- 
ing may  be  continued  if  due  care  is  exercised,  especially  in 
avoiding  very  high  or  very  low  registers. 

At  any  rate,  a  reasonable  amount  of  voice  culture  seems 
to  be  needed  in  the  secondary  school  to  secure  a  satisfactory 
speaking  voice.  Too  often  the  voice  settles  into  an  undesirable 
pitch  and  color ;  it  becomes  nasal,  throaty,  coarse,  or  in  girls 
shrill  and  grating,  and  enunciation  is  defective.  Teachers 
should  set  a  persistent  good  example  and  encourage  their 
pupils  to  think  how  they  sound  as  well  as  how  they  look! 

Growth  of  the  Brain.  —  The  brain,  unlike  most  of  the 
bodily  organs,  does  not  increase  much  in  weight  at  adolescence. 
However,  the  manifold  alterations  and  augmentations  in 
psychic  life  —  the  new  instincts,  feelings,  ideals,  motives, 
and  the  general  ripening  of  intellectual  grasp  that  make  up 
the  psychological  picture  of  adolescence  —  point  unmistakably 
to  corresponding  alterations  in  brain  activity.  These  altera- 
tions may  be  in  part  the  functional  maturing  of  cells  and 
tracts  hitherto  dormant,  and  in  part  the  extension  and  rami- 
fication of  the  fiber  processes  of  cells  already  mature,  par- 
ticularly in  the  "  higher  "  association  areas  of  the  cortex.  The 
one  development  would  account  for  the  awakening  of  new 
instinctive  tendencies,  the  other  for  the  enriching  and  elabora- 
tion of  mentality  in  general. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  ADOLES- 
CENCE.2 -  -  The  most  prominent  instinctive  responses  of 

1  Morell  MacKenzie,  M.D.,  The  Hygiene  of  the  Vocal  Organs.     London,  1886, 
p.  130. 

2  METHOD  OF  STUDYING  ADOLESCENCK.  —  A  word  may  be  said  concerning 
the  method  of  studying  the  psychology  of  adolescence.     Our  present  knowledge 
of  this  field  is  due  almost  entirely  to  the  labors  of  Stanley  Hall,  who,  with  the  aid 
of  his  confreres  and  graduate  students  at  Clark  University,  has  collected  thou- 
sands of  observations  by  the  circulation  of  series  of  questions.     The  questionary, 

s 


258  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

childhood,  fearing,  feeding,  fighting,  and  the  like,  make  for 
self-preservation.  The  child  naturally  "  looks  out  for  num- 
ber one  "  ;  his  conduct  is  ego-centric ;  he  is,  from  an  adult 
point  of  view,  intrinsically  selfish.  But  to  Nature  the  indi- 
vidual counts  for  little,  the  race  for  much.  Self-preservation 
may  be  the  "  first  law  of  human  nature,"  but  species-preserva- 
tion is  the  first  law  of  Nature. 

We  have  seen  how,  during  puberty,  the  body  becomes 
physically  prepared  for  participation  in  this  species-preserva- 
tion. We  must  now  see  how,  during  the  same  period,  mental 
reconstruction  yields  a  new  attitude  toward  life  —  an  attitude 
which  is,  in  large  measure,  clearly  directed  to  the  same  general 
end  as  the  physical  reconstruction. 

Primary  and  Secondary  Sex  Characters.  -  -  The  biolo- 
gist distinguishes  between  structures  or  traits  that  are  directly 
and  immediately  concerned  in  the  process  of  reproduction 
and  other  structures  or  traits  that  are  merely  accessory  or 
assisting ;  the  former  are  termed  primary,  the  latter  secondary 
sexual  characters.  Thus,  the  odor  or  color  of  a  flower,  for 
example,  is  a  secondary  character  that  serves  to  attract  in- 
sects and  brings  about  fertilization  by  pollen  grains  (the  pri- 
mary sex  characters). 

Analogously,  the  mental  processes  correlated  with  the 
development  of  sex  during  adolescence  may  be  regarded  as 
including  not  only  those  that  are  primary  to  sex,  like  sex 
love  and  impulses  toward  sexual  activity  (libido,  in  the  scien- 

or  questionnaire,  is,  as  its  name  implies,  a  list  of  questions,  usually  printed,  to 
which  answers  are  sought  from  a  considerable  number  —  say,  several  hundred 
—  of  persons.  The  replies,  or  "returns,"  are  then  collated,  and  from  them  in- 
ferences are  drawn.  The  method  has  the  advantage  of  numbers  —  200  expe- 
riences afford  a  truer  picture  of  human  nature  than  do  two  or  half  a  dozen  — 
but  it  has  defects;  200  poor  answers  by  writers  incapable  of  reliable  report,  or 
seeking  to  please  the  questioner,  or  unconsciously  suggested  by  the  phrasing 
of  his  questions  —  200  such  answers  are  inferior  to  half  a  dozen  reliable  observa- 
tions. It  is  not  improbable  that  some  of  the  generalizations  now  current  about 
the  psychic  life  of  adolescents  are  unwarranted  and  will  be  replaced  in  time  as 
more  critical  and  exact  information  becomes  available. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       259 

tific  terminology),  but  also  a  host  of  other  processes  that  are 
secondarily  or  indirectly  associated  with  the  emergence  of 
the  sex-consciousness. 

Ramifications  of  the  Sex  Instinct  in  Mental  Life.  - 
Thus,  interest  in  adornment,  "  showing-off,"  widening  con- 
sciousness of  social  relations,  altruistic  conduct,  aesthetic 
appreciation,  religious  conversion,  and  desire  for  travel,  to 
cite  instances,  represent  varied  and  characteristic  mental 
experiences  of  adolescence,  all  of  which  may  be  traced  back 
to  sex,  in  the  widest  meaning  of  that  term.  Not,  of  course, 
that  the  sex  instinct  is  alone  responsible  for  these  manifesta- 
tions, or  that  the  adolescent  is  even  conscious  of  a  connection 
between  them  and  his  sex  life,  but  only  that  the  chief  driving 
agency  behind  them  is,  after  all,  the  sex  instinct.  To  use  the 
fruitful  metaphor  of  Stanley  Hall,  we  may  think  of  these 
secondary  or  indirect  manifestations  as  "  long-circuitings  "  or 
"  irradiations  "  of  the  sex  instinct,  and  the  problem  of  the 
psychology  of  adolescence  becomes  primarily  that  of  catalogu- 
ing and  describing  them.  Or,  to  use  the  terminology  of  the 
followers  of  the  Vienna  physician,  Freud,  —  who  has  given 
us  an  elaborate  account  of  the  genesis  and  development, 
particularly  in  aberrant  ways,  of  these  sex  manifestations,  — 
we  may  speak  of  these  remoter  manifestations  as  "  sublima- 
tions "  of  the  sex  impulse. 

Sensory  Development.  -  -  The  uncertainty  in  data  and 
inferences  based  on  the  questionary  method  is  well  illustrated 
in  the  statements  commonly  made  as  to  the  effect  of  adoles- 
cence upon  sensory  development.  On  the  one  hand,  labora- 
tory experiments  do  not  indicate  any  marked  or  widespread 
"  sharpening  of  the  senses  "  during  the  period.1  The  best 
data  obtainable  show,  for  instance,  that  auditory  acuity 
reaches  its  maximum  at  12  years;  that  visual  acuity  tends 
all  too  often  to  deteriorate  as  a  consequence  of  myopia, 
hyperopia,  and  astigmatism  ;  that  the  discrimination  of  two 
1  For  detailed  statements,  see  Whipple,  op.  n/.,  Chap.  VI. 


260  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

points  on  the  skin  (the  aesthesiometric  index)  is  poorer  at 
maturity  than  at  childhood.  Sensitivity  to  pain  decreases  up 
to  1 8  or  19  years,  with  irregularities  at  puberty.  Pitch  dis- 
crimination apparently  does  not  improve  after  the  loth  year, 
nor  the  discrimination  of  lifted  weights  after  the  i3th  year. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  frequently  quoted  results  of  Lan- 
caster's questionary 1  are  taken  by  many  writers  to  mean 
that  the  senses  grow  keener  during  adolescence.  But  when  a 
girl  of  17  testifies  that  she  now  hears  the  chimes  three  miles 
away  that  she  never  heard  as  a  child,  when  another  asserts 
that  her  eyesight  was  keenest  at  13,  as  tested  by  seeing  a 
steeple  in  the  distance,  and  another  that  all  nature  took  on  a 
"  new  aspect  of  beauty  "  at  this  period,  and  when  Hall  speaks 
of  "  a  new  dermal  consciousness,"  etc.,  it  is  evident  enough 
that  the  adolescent  modification  is  central,  not  peripheral. 
What  is  changed  is  not  the  cochlea  or  the  retina,  but  atten- 
tion, interest,  feeling,  and  emotion.  In  short,  adolescence 
affects  the  attitude  toward  sensation,  not  sensation  itself. 

New  Dermal  Consciousness.  —  Take,  in  illustration,  the  "new 
dermal  consciousness  "  just  mentioned.  The  sweat  glands 
and  sebaceous  glands  apparently  become  more  active  dur- 
ing puberty.  The  skin  is  more  oily.  Concern  as  to  per- 
sonal appearance  may  impel  the  girl  to  an  altered  regimen 
of  bathing,  to  the  use  of  cosmetics.  Pimples  and  eruptions, 
characteristic  of  the  period,  solicit  attention.  Some  pur- 
posely abrade  the  skin ;  others  try  to  pull  hair  from  the  eye- 
brows, cheeks,  and  other  parts  of  the  body,  despite  the  pain. 
Primitive  people  indulge  in  tattooing  at  this  time.  Then 
appear  strong  likes  and  dislikes  for  covering  parts  of  the 
body,  arms,  neck,  hands,  head,  etc.,  with  clothing.  Contact 
with  the  skin  of  others,  as  in  hand-shaking,  stroking,  caressing, 
kissing,  may  be  sought  after  and  enjoyed,  or  strongly  disliked 
and  shunned.  All  this  elaboration  of  the  "  skin  conscious- 

1  E.  G.  Lancaster,  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Adolescence.  Pcd. 
Son.,  6:  July,  1897,  61-128,  esp.  p.  79. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       261 

ness"  is  centrally,  not  peripherally,  determined;  it  is,  in 
reality,  closely  related  to  the  ripening  of  sex  functions,  as 
Freud  *  has  shown.  Hall  believes  that  the  leading  of  a  rugged 
life,  with  abundant  skin  stimulation,  even  with  plenty  of  pain 
stimuli,  is  desirable  to  keep  attention  from  being  focalized 
on  sex. 

New  Smell  and  Taste  Interests.  —  Questionary  returns 
show  a  similar  emergence  of  new  interests  in  odors.  Girls 
develop  fondness  for  perfumed  soaps,  sachet  powder,  smell- 
ing bottles,  etc.  Likes  and  dislikes  for  people  are  frequently 
reported  to  be  based  upon  real  or  fancied  odors;  friendships 
are  broken  on  account  of  a  bad  breath,  and  so  on. 

Taste  and  smell,  in  combination,  give  us  flavor,  and  re- 
action to  flavor  determines  likes  and  dislikes  for  various 
foods.  Data  from  questionary  returns  indicate  both  a  widen- 
ing of  the  range  and  a  greater  caprice  of  appetite  during  early 
adolescence.  Many  articles  of  food  are  now  used  for  the 
first  time,  and  few  new  dishes  are  u  acquired  "  after  this  period. 
Naturally,  extreme  likes  and  dislikes  are  to  be  curbed,  espe- 
cially when  they  tend  to  undermine  health,  e.g.  overindulgence 
in  tea,  coffee,  condiments,  and  sweets.  Adolescents  not  in- 
frequently become  faddists,  and  pursue  certain  diets,  e.g. 
vegetarianism,  religiously  for  a  time.  Hall  is  of  the  opinion 
that  this  widening  range  of  appetite  at  adolescence  may  be  a 
recapitulation  of  the  age  in  primitive  peoples  when  youth 
cut  loose  from  parental  support  and  began  an  independent 
life  of  food  getting,  but  this  surmise  is  as  questionable  as  any 
other  that  hinges  upon  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  psychic 
recapitulation. 

AVu'  Aural  Interests,  -  -  With  the  change  of  voice  at 
adolescence,  there  is,  as  we  have  noted,  a  "  new  vocal  con- 
sciousness.'1 Likewise,  there  appears  an  undeniable  aug- 

1  S.  Freud,  Three  Contributions  to  the  Sexir.d  Theory.  (AYrtWf.v  and  Men- 
tal Disease  Monograph  Series,  Xo.  7),  Xe\v  York,  IQIO,  especially  the  third 
essay  :  "The  Transformation  of  Puberty." 


262  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

mentation  of  interest  in  music  —  both  intellectually  in  growth 
of  real  musical  appreciation  and  understanding  of  musical 
forms,  and  emotionally  in  delight  in  music.  Of  556  adoles- 
cents who  answered  Lancaster's  questionary,  464  testified  to 
an  increased  "  love  of  music."  The  evidence  for  this  nascent 
period  is  fairly  clear,  and  it  appears  to  reach  its  climax  at 
the  1 5th  year.  At  this  time,  many  boys  and  girls,  who  are 
in  reality  unmusical,  pass  through  a  period  of  transient  de- 
votion to  music,  purchase  instruments,  and  begin  to  "  take 
lessons,"  especially  on  stringed  instruments  (banjo,  mandolin, 
and  guitar).  Those  who  have  real  talent  make  surprising 
progress  at  this  time;  the  others  soon  lose  their  zeal. 

Here,  again,  and  in  the  similarly  augmented  interest  in 
color,  displayed  in  dress,  in  painting  lessons,  etc.,  we  have  an 
example  of  the  enrichment  of  sensory  life  by  the  indirect 
ramification  of  sex  instinct.  The  real  adolescent  growth  is 
not  in  sensitivity  and  sense  discrimination,  in  the  strict 
psychological  sense,  but  in  the  emotional  background,  and 
the  appeal  that  stimulation  of  skin,  tongue,  nose,  ear,  and 
eye  makes  to  the  strong  undercurrent  of  life  interests  of  the 
period.  Pedagogically,  the  main  problem  is  the  utilization 
of  this  "  awakening  "  for  the  higher  processes  of  mental 
development,  particularly  the  turning  of  these  biologically 
determined  impulses  toward  artistic  and  creative  effort  of  a 
worthy  kind. 

The  Sex  Instinct. -- The  most  fundamental  psychic  phe- 
nomena of  adolescence  is,  however,  not  in  the  sphere  of 
sensation,  or  the  emotional  reaction  to  sense-impressions,  but 
rather  in  the  sphere  of  instinct.  The  sex  instinct  has  been 
commonly  regarded  as  a  typical  latent  or  delayed  racial 
tendency,  as  practically  totally  lacking  in  childhood  and 
appearing  relatively  abruptly  at  puberty.  In  a  way  this  is 
true.  The  young  child  naturally  exhibits  little  physical 
self-consciousness,  little  instinctive  concealment  of  sex  shame, 
whereas,  at  puberty,  there  appear  bashfulness,  coyness, 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       263 

"  showing  oil,"  strong  personal  interest  in  individuals  of  the 
opposite  sex,  and  a  flood  of  vague  impulses  and  emotional 
reactions  to  sexual  stimuli.  Some  authorities  go  so  far  as  to 
assert  that  for  some  years  at  this  time  fully  nine  tenths  of 
the  mental  processes  of  adolescents  center  in  sex  and  its 
functions  —  if  we  give  to  the  term  a  broad  interpretation. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  work  of  Freud  and  his 
followers  has  laid  emphatic  stress  upon  the  principle  that  the 
remoter  beginnings  of  the  sexual  life  date  far  back  into  child- 
hood and  even  into  infancy,  so  that  these  pubertal  phenomena 
are  transformations  or  realignments  of  earlier  instinctive 
tendencies  rather  than  new  and  hitherto-absent  tendencies.1 

Sex  Charms  and  Fetishes.  —  In  the  emergence  during 
puberty,  and  the  subsequent  development,  of  attraction  for 
the  opposite  sex,  there  is  exhibited  an  interesting  and  char- 
acteristic example  of  that  "  long-circuiting  "  or  indirect  rami- 
fication of  the  instinct  to  which  we  have  already  alluded.  It 
is  this:  sexual  attraction  or  repugnance  tends  to  be  aroused 
less  by  the  primary  sexual  characteristics  than  by  secondary 
or  remoter  characteristics.  Likes  and  dislikes,  in  other 
words,  are  based  upon  seemingly  trivial  details  of  personality, 
e.g.  color  of  eyes  or  hair,  manner  of  walking,  quality  of  voice, 
contour  of  neck,  and  so  on  —  all  traits  which  do  not,  in  the 
last  resort,  affect  in  one  way  or  another  the  value  of  their 
possessor,  considered  biologically  as  a  contributor  to  the 
perpetuation  of  the  species,  yet  traits  which  constitute  the 
basic  material  of  romantic  love. 

Where,  as  is  often  the  case,  some  one  trait  or  combination 
of  traits  becomes  the  focus  of  interest  and  admiration,  or,  as 
it  is  phrased,  gains  "  special  erogenic  power,"  to  the  exclusion 
of  other  traits  and  qualities,  we  term  it  a  sex  fetish.  Inves- 
tigators have  collected  and  classified  these  fetishes  by  asking 
young  men  and  women  what  particular  traits  they  regarded 
as  essential  in  determining  likes  or  dislikes  for  persons  of  the 

1  See  Freud,  op.  cit. 


264  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

opposite  sex.1  The  results  are  most  striking.  Bodily  traits 
are  cited  in  the  order:  eyes,  hair,  stature,  feet,  brows,  com- 
plexion, cheeks,  throat,  ears,  chin,  hands,  neck,  nose,  etc. 
Movements  and  actions  are  equally  prolific  sources  of  sex 
fetishes,  e.g.  the  voice,  mode  of  laughing,  carriage,  gait, 
gesture,  pose  of  head,  etc.  Attraction  may  also  center  in 
dress  or  personal  adornment  —  white  linen,  furs,  collars, 
glasses,  ribbons,  sashes,  etc. 

Equally  intense  aversions  may  reside  in  specific  traits, 
e.g.  prominent  or  deep-set  eyes,  full  neck,  ears  that  stand  out, 
eyebrows  that  meet,  large  feet,  pimples,  red  hair,  giggling, 
swaggering,  flashy  neckties,  untidy  linen,  colored  handker- 
chiefs, or  resemblance  to  certain  animals  —  monkey,  dog, 
parrot,  pig,  peacock,  etc. 

In  all  the  instances  of  attraction,  these  traits  become  charms 
dissociated  from  sex  centers  (or  perhaps  rather  symbolic  of 
them)  and  objects  of  direct  attraction.  This  focalization  of 
the  sex  attraction  upon  specific  traits,  often  in  themselves 
trivial,  varies  in  individual  adolescents,  both  in  quality  and 
in  degree,  but  the  tendency  is  decided  and  clearly  enough 
exhibited  by  most  adolescents,  especially  in  the  early  portion 
of  the  period.  As  maturity  approaches  they  may  suffer 
modification  and  even  reversal,  so  that  the  young  boy  who  wor- 
ships golden  hair  in  his  teens  may,  after  all,  succumb  to  a 
complex  of  other  qualities  in  a  pronounced  brunette. 

The  Development  of  Love.  —-  The  appearance  of  these 
sex  charms  and  fetishes  is  but  one  phase  of  the  development 
of  the  sentiment  of  love.  Not  even  this  romantic  and  poetic 
phase  of  human  nature  has  escaped  the  analysis  of  the  man 
of  science,  and  we  have  several  accounts,  primarily  based  upon 
the  questionary  method,  of  the  normal  development  of  love. 
Bell,2  for  example,  distinguishes  five  fairly  representative  stages. 


l,  Adolescence,  IT.  113  ff. 
-  Sanford  Bell,  A  Preliminary  Study  of  the  Emotion  of  Love  between   ihe 
Sexes.     Amer.  Jour,  of  Psych.,  13  :  July,  1902,  325-354. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       265 

(1)  The  ''  love  "  of  childhood,  of  boys  and  girls  under  the 
age  of  8,  —  a  sort  of  Platonic,  sexless,  transparent  childhood 
attraction,  characterized  by  fondness  for  one  another's  com- 
pany,   exchanging    keepsakes,    etc.     These    attractions    are 
commonly  transitory  and  free  from  danger  if  not  carried  too 
far. 

(2)  Juvenile  love,  or  "  liking,"  during  the  years  8  to  12,  is 
more  secretive  and  self-conscious.     This  is  the  stage  of  motto 
candy,  and  valentines,  and  such  behavior  as  Whittier  has 
wrought  into  his  poem  "  In  School-Days."     Teachers  some- 
times successfully  utilize  these  juvenile  attractions  as  an  in- 
centive for  better  work  and  conduct  in  the  schoolroom. 

(3)  From  8  to  13,  or  later,  there  may  be  displayed  a  psy- 
chologically interesting  stage  in  which  affection  is  exhibited 
for   older   persons.     Though    sometimes   abnormally   strong, 
and  then  a  perverted  and  perhaps  dangerous  development, 
this  tendency  is  to  be  looked  upon  in  the  main  as  natural  and 
not  unproductive  of  good,  especially  for  the  younger  party. 
Very  common  in  this  connection  is  the  sentimental  affection 
developed  by  boys  in  the  grades  or  early  high  school  years 
for  women  teachers  —  an  affection  which  may  exert  a  power- 
ful determination  upon  the  ideals,  incentives,  and  conduct  of 
these  pupils.     The  fact  that  this  attraction  for  older  persons 
may  focus  upon  an  individual  of  the  same  sex  (and  not  mere 
liking,    but    actual    passionate    love)    lends    countenance    to 
Hall's  suggestion  that  the  root  of  the  sentiment  may  be  an 
admiration   for    maturity  itself.      Because  most    schoolboys 
are  confronted  with  women  teachers,  the  attraction  happens, 
for  them,  to  be  often  hetero-sexual.     Some  observers  believe 
that  a  rough  rule  may  be  laid  down  to  the  effect  that  the  sum 
of  the  ages  of  the  two  persons  remains  approximately  con- 
stant, i.e.   the  younger  the  one  party,  the  older  the  other. 
This  stage  shows,  at  least,  how  fundamental  and  how  wide 
in  scope  are  the  sentiments  and  impulses  of  the  period. 

(4)  A  fourth  stage,  assigned  to  the  beginning  of  puberty, 


266  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

seems  to  the  writer  less  clearly  manifested.  In  it,  it  is  as- 
serted, there  is  a  temporary  drawing  apart  of  the  sexes,  as 
modesty  and  sex  reserve  develop,  and  the  interests  of  boys 
and  girls  tend  to  diverge.  Boys  want  to  assert  their  man- 
hood and  are  ashamed  of  the  inexplicable  weaknesses  betrayed 
in  their  juvenile  loves. 

(5)  In  the  final  stage  conscious  sex  love  slowly  emerges, 
gradually  taking  on  fuller  richness  and  meaning  as  physical 
and  mental  maturity  is  attained. 

Instruction  in  Sex  Hygiene.  —  Sex  hygiene  may  be 
regarded  as  primarily  concerned  with  securing  a  normal  and 
wholesome  development  of  the  sex  instinct,  though  the  field 
that  it  opens  for  discussion  presents  physiological,  ethical, 
and  sociological,  as  well  as  psychological  problems.  The 
past  few  years  have  been  attended  with  vigorous  discussions 
of  the  feasibility  of  instruction  in  matters  sexual,  and  an  ex- 
tensive literature  has  accumulated.1  These  discussions  con- 
cern four  main  queries:  why,  by  whom,  when,  and  how  ? 

Why  ?  —  Children  possess  a  natural  curiosity  concerning 
the  origin  of  life,  birth,  difference  between  the  sexes,  functions 
of  sex  organs,  and  the  significance  of  the  bodily  changes  ob- 
served in  themselves  at  puberty.  They  have  a  right  to  know 
about  these  things.  Correctly  given  instruction  in  sex  hygiene 
certainly  tends  toward  the  securing  of  a  healthful  sexual 

1  An  excellent  indication  of  the  interest  manifested  in  the  problem  and  of 
current  views  on  the  subject  is  to  be  found  in  the  symposium  on  The  Problem 
of  Sex-instruction,  Journal  of  Education,  75:  March  21,  1912,  313-323.  The 
writer  has  summarized  some  of  the  recent  literature  in  the  Journal  of  Editc. 
Psycho!.,  2  :  October,  1911,464-470.  In  the  same  issue  will  be  found  a  good  survey 
of  the  problem  by  W.  S.  Foster,  School  Instruction  in  Matters  of  Sex,  440-450, 
and  a  description  of  an  actual  high  school  course,  by  W.  H.  Eddy,  An  Experi- 
ment in  Teaching  Sex  Hygiene,  451-458.  Teachers  may  secure,  at  nominal 
sums,  by  addressing  the  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  9  East 
42d  St.,  New  York  City,  a  series  of  six  Educational  Pamphlets  of  value.  The 
same  organization  publishes  a  series  of  Transactions  and  a  Journal  of  Social 
Diseases.  Some  important  papers  on  sex  hygiene  will  be  found  in  Vol.  II, 
Xo.  4,  October.  IQII,  issue.  For  an  extended  discussion,  see  Havelock  Ellis, 
Psychology  of  Sex,  Vol.  6. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       267 

development,  and  on  this  hinges  healthful  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  development.  The  "  policy  of  silence,"  which 
has  been  predominant  in  this  country  in  the  past,  and  which 
is  still  favored  by  many  parents  and  teachers,  is  absolutely 
indefensible,  as  any  one  fully  conversant  with  the  facts  knows 
full  well.  The  child's  curiosity  drives  him  to  secure  infor- 
mation where  he  may  find  it,  and  he  usually  secures  it  from 
playmates  in  a  filthy,  misleading,  and  reprehensible  form. 
Lack  of  early  instruction  is  the  primary  cause  of  bad  personal 
habits.  It  is  responsible  for  the  pathetic  anxiety  and  worry 
of  numerous  adolescent  boys  and  girls,  who  fear  that  the 
symptoms  of  pubertal  change  that  they  see  in  themselves  are 
abnormal,  frequently  become  the  prey  of  quack  "  doctors," 
and  may  even  be  driven  to  contemplate  suicide  on  that  ac- 
count.1 Lack  of  instruction  is  responsible,  too,  at  least  in 
part,  for  youthful  immorality.  "  Girls  who  go  wrong  "  often 
blame  their  parents.  Schoolmen  have  unearthed  most  ap- 
palling conditions  in  some  high  schools.  Finally,  lack  of 
instruction  is  responsible,  in  part,  for  the  frightful  spread  of 
venereal  diseases.2  It  is  surely  worth  while  to  incur  whatever 
slight  risks  may  attend  the  giving  of  instruction  to  the  young 
if  these  calamitous  evils  may  be  in  some  measure  counteracted. 
By  Whom  ?  —  Ideally,  sex  Destruction  should  be  the 
welcome  task  of  parents.  In  practice,  parental  instruction 
is  a  failure.  In  many  cases  the  parents  are  themselves  in- 
competent to  give  the  instruction.  More  often  they  do  not 
attempt  it  on  account  of  false  modesty.  To  them  sex  is 
"  taboo.1'  They  repress  the  first  questionings  of  their  children 
and  erect  insurmountable  barriers  to  further  approach.  The 
child  soon  learns  to  refrain  from  direct  inquiry.3  Yet  other 

1  Hall,  Adolescent;-,   I,  450-46,3. 

2  See  particularly,  \V.  L.  Howard,  M.I).,  Plain  Fads  on  Sex  Hygiene.     Xe\v 
York,  10 1  o. 

3  On  the  disastrous  effects  of  this  undermining  of  the  faith  and  intimacy  of 
parent  and  child,  sec  Krncst  Jones,     M.D.,   Psycho-analysis    and  Education. 
Jour,  of  Ed  nc.  i's\\ii.,  I:  ;<;io.  407-520. 


268  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

parents  intend  to  inform  their  children,  but  put  off  the  day  of 
enlightenment  until  conversation  is  too  difficult  or  it  is  too  late. 

In  some  quarters,  especially  in  Germany,  the  church  or 
the  clergy  have  claimed  the  prerogative  of  guiding  sexual 
development  in  youth,  but  no  serious,  systematic,  or  extensive 
movement  for  allying  sexual  with  religious  instruction  is  to 
be  discerned  in  this  country.  "It  would  be  predestined  to 
failure,  partly  because  the  minister  is  too  distant  in  his  rela- 
tions with  his  congregation,  partly  because  he  is  incompetent 
properly  to  instruct  children  in  these  matters.  He  can,  of 
course,  perform  a  valuable  indirect  service  by  his  appeal  for 
moral  conduct,  self-respect,  and  high  ideals. 

The  family  doctor  has  also  been  thought  by  some  to  be  the 
natural  agent  of  sex  instruction,  but  here,  again,  both  peda- 
gogical skill  and  personal  intimacy  are  wanting. 

The  school,  then,  remains  as  the  best  practical  agency. 
The  school  undertakes  the  general  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  training  of  the  child;  why  should  it  not  include  this 
particular  aspect  ?  x  The  teacher  has  pedagogical  skill  ;  the 
teacher  knows  the  child.  The  child  looks  to  the  teacher  for 
guidance.  Reproduction  may  be  studied  perfectly  logically 
in  physiology  and  biology,  and  the  basis  for  special  instruction 
may  there  be  firmly  laid.  .; 

When  ?  —  Opinions  differ  as  to  whether  instruction  in  sex 
should  be  left  till  the  time  of  puberty  or  not.  The  chief  argu- 
ment for  postponement  is  the  plea  that  unnatural  precocity 
will  result  from  early  instruction,  and  the  desire  to  keep  the 
child  in  "  blessed  ignorance."  The  arguments  for  prepubertal 
instruction  are  much  weightier.  More  pupils  may  be  reached 
in  this  period  if  the  instruction  is  given  in  the  school.  In- 
struction is  easier  then,  for  both  teacher  and  child.  Adults 
are  seldom  able  to  realize  how  much  less  self-conscious  than 
themselves  are  children  who  have  not  reached  their  teens. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       269 

Again,  a  prime  reason  for  early  instruction  is  the  fear  of  the 
evils  that  may  follow  deferment.  As  Dr.  Blom  says:  "  Better 
a  year  too  early  than  an  hour  too  late."  Finally,  experience  has 
demonstrated  the  feasibility  of  early  instruction.  The  alleged 
precocity  does  not  develop  if  the  instruction  is  properly  given. 

How  ?  —  If  we  admit  that  sex  instruction  should  begin  in 
the  prepubertal  period  and  extend  through  the  pubertal 
period,  the  method  and  material  of  instruction  fall  naturally 
into  two  parts.  During  the  first,  or  prepubertal,  period,  which 
would  naturally  coincide  with  the  elementary  school,  instruc- 
tion should  be  straightforward,  objective,  factual,  and  essen- 
tially scientific  in  vein,  and  should  be  incorporated  mainly 
in  the  teaching  of  physiology,  nature  study,  and  personal 
hygiene.  If  this  work  could  be  based  upon,  and  supplemented 
by,  home  instruction,  so  much  the  better.1 

In  the  second,  or  pubertal  and  postpubertal  period,  I.e.  in 
the  secondary  school,  instruction  should  take  on  a  more  per- 
sonal and  subjective  tone  and  be  presented  with  a  strong 
ethical  and  social  emphasis.  Just  what  should  be  given  and 
what  not  given  is  still  a  matter  of  debate,  and  the  whole 
pedagogy  of  sex  hygiene  is  yet  in  the  experimental  stage. 
Much  depends  on  the  local  situation  and  on  the  skill  and  per- 
sonality of  the  teacher.  Thus,  it  is  debated  whether  refer- 
ence to  the  pathology  of  sex,  particularly  to  venereal  dis- 
eases, their  nature  and  spread,  is  desirable  or  undesirable. 
A  middle  course  would  seem  to  be  indicated.  To  secure 
right  conduct  in  sex  as  in  other  matters  we  need  to  use  both 
positive  and  negative  incentives.2 

1  Suggestions  for  a  graded  course  of  prepubertal  instruction  will  be  found  in 
B.  Talmey,   M.I)..  Cc/trsis:    a   .\fiii: u<il  of   Instruction  of  Children  in  Matters 
Sexual  (\ew  York,  igio),  Part  TI,  though  some  of  the  material  there  proposed 
seems  too  difficult  for  the  ages  to  which  it  is  assigned.     Consult  also  Clara 
Schmitt,  The  Teaching  of  the  Facts  of  Sex  in  the  Public  School,  Fed.  Son., 
2- :  June,  1010.  220-241. 

2  Tn  favor  of  warning  against  venereal  diseases  is,  of  course,  the  hope  that  it 
will  serve  as  a  powerful  deterrent  against  yielding  to  temptation.     Thus  Howard 


270  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Also  debatable  is  the  question  whether  instruction  should 
be  occasional  or  systematic,  optional  or  prescribed,  to  separate 
or  to  mixed  classes,  by  physicians  or  by  regular  teachers. 
Neither  is  it  clear  how  much  value  is  to  be  gained  from  the 
circulation  of  "  books  of  warning,"  as  they  have  been  termed.1 
The  experiences  reported  by  W.  H.  Eddy 2  and  by  Jessie 
Phelps  3  show  that  it  is  perfectly  feasible  to  arrange  a  well- 
organized  and  successful  course  in  conjunction  with  the  work 
in  biology. 

The  Migratory  Instinct.  --  The  sex  instinct  is  one  factor  in 
that  complex  impulse  to  seek  new  surroundings,  to  exchange  the 
routine  and  the  familiar  for  the  fresh  and  the  unknown,  which 
is  termed  the  migratory  instinct.  Thus,  the  migrations  of 
animals  are  partly  impelled  by  food-getting,  partly  by  climatic 
conditions,  but  partly  also  by  the  approach  of  mating  and 
breeding  seasons.  And  in  children,  though  the  running 

(op.  a'/.,  p.  iii)  \vritc5  :  "  The  fearful  havoc  the  diseases  explained  in  this  book  are 
making  among  the  innocent  is  due  to  ignorance.  Tt  is  my  purpose  in  this  book 
to  destroy  forever  this  injurious  ignorance.  This  is  the  only  way  to  stop  the 
increase  of  the  curse  that  is  over  all  the  land."  Similarly,  Talmey  recommends 
instruction  on  menstruation,  pollution,  and  masturbation  to  children  13  to  16 
years  of  age,  and  instruction  on  gonorrhea,  syphilis,  and  continence  to  children 
16  to  18  years  of  age.  Divergent  views  are  expressed  by  Dr.  Richard  Cabot 
(The  Consecration  of  the  Affections  —  often  misnamed  Sex  Hygiene.  Proc.jlh 
Cong,  of  the  Amer.  Sell.  Hyg.  Assoc.,  Xew  York,  IQII,  pp.  114-120)  and  by 
\V.  D.  Parkinson  (Sex  and  Education.  F.ditc.  Rev.,  41  :  January,  IQII.  42-50), 
who  question  whether  we  can  create  virtue  by  dwelling  on  vice,  and  think  it 
bad  morality  to  preach  virtue  for  fear  of  the  consequences  of  sin.  Parkinson's 
article  closes  with  a  very  suggestive  set  of  questions  which  will  repay  considera- 
tion. 

1  These  are  abundant  enough,  but  not  always  of  the  type  to  be  desired  — 
straightforward,   cautious,  and   impressive  without   being   sentimental.     Good 
examples  are  I-'..  Lyttclton,  Training  of  t lie  Young  in  Laws  of  Sex,  London,  1000. 
and  two  books  by  Dr.  Kdith  H.  Lowry,  Conjiilriica* :  Talks  with  a  Young  Girl 
concerning  Herself  (Chicago:    Forbes  &  Co.,   icjio)   and  Truths:    Talks  with  a 
Boy  concerning  Himself.  1910. 

2  Op,,  ell. 

3  Biologic  teaching  of   sex.     Trans,  rst.   Ann.  Met  ting  Amer.  Assoc.  for  the 
Study  and    Prevention    of    Infant    Mortality.     Baltimore,  IQIO,    pp.   291-296. 
(Reviewed  in  Jour.  I-'.tluc.  Psych.,  2:    IQII,  464-470.) 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence 


271 


away  from  home,  which  often  begins  as  soon  as  walking  is 
learned,  has  doubtless  various  motives,  conscious  or  sub- 
conscious, yet  the  tendency  is  certainly  stronger  in  the  spring 
than  at  other  seasons  (so  that  our  "  spring  fever  "  probably 
has  some  biological  significance)  and  stronger  at  adolescence 
than  at  other  ages.1  So  Kline-  has  found  that  the  " curve"  of 
''  love  of  adventure  "  rises  rapidly  to  10,  and  steadily  there- 
after to  19,  and  lias  shown  a  clear  nexus  between  truancy 
and  the  migratory  instinct ;  and  Brooks  3  in  his  suggestive 
study  on  withdrawal  from  school  found  that  "  desire  for  ac- 
tivity "  is  a  peculiarly  potent  factor  at  the  dawn  of  adoles- 
cence. Naturally,  this  characteristic  restlessness  of  adoles- 
cence need  not  manifest  itself  in  actual  truancy  or  running 
away  from  home.  But  parents  know  full  well  how,  with  the 
widening  circle  of  acquaintances  and  the  widening  range  of 
interests  that  the  high  school  entails,  their  sons  and  daughters 
grow  less  and  less  home-bodies  and  are  more  and  more  caught 
up  in  the  bustle  and  activity  of  life  outside  their  <*vn  fold. 
The  fact  that  the  yearning  is  so  often  a  veritable  Wanderlust 
raises  the  question  whether  the  school  might  not  turn  the 
tendency  to  good  account  by  arranging  collecting  trips,  school 
excursions  to  points  of  industrial,  historic,  geologic,  or  geo- 
graphic interest,  providing  lectures  on  travel  and  life  in  for- 
eign countries,  or  by  encouraging  camera  clubs,  walking 
clubs,  vacation  tours,  and  the  like. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  in  America  no  such  organ- 
ized trips  for  pupils  as  have  long  been  regular  features  of 

1  The  writer  h;is  found  that  in  college  classes  those  men  who  have  not  run 
uway  from  home  one  or  more  times  during  their  high  school  period  are  generally 
in   the  minority.     The  essentially  instinctive  character  of  the  motivation   is 
evident  both  in  the  frequence  of  the  occurrence  and  in  the  fact  that  there  is 
really  no  clear  reason  or  necessity  for  the  going  in  most  instances;    the  impulse 
often  sei/es  suddenly   upon    hoys  whose  home    conditions  were  most  happy. 

2  L.  J.   Kline,  The  Migratory  Impulse  v.v.   Love  (if  Home.     Anirr.  Jour,  of 
Psych.,  10 :    uSc.8,  1-81. 

'•'  S.  1).  Uro.-.ks,  C-r.ises  of  Withdrawal  from  School.     EJitc.  Rev.,  26:  1903, 
362. 


272  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

German  school  life.  With  us  points  of  interest  appear  to  be 
too  far  apart ;  the  cost  of  travel  is  perhaps  too  great ;  we 
lack  the  convenient  inns.  A  beginning  has  been  made,  how- 
ever, in  some  parts  of  the  country ;  some  schools  in  central 
New  York  have  arranged  walking  trips  through  districts  of 
historic  interest  in  their  vicinity ;  excursions  of  graduating 
classes  to  Washington  have  also  become  common.  Similarly, 
competent  instructors  have  taken  groups  of  boys  on  bicycling 
trips  of  a  week  or  more,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
The  recent  Boy  Scout  movement  also  provides  for  various 
expeditions. 

THE  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE.  The 
Social  Instincts.  —  The  sex  instinct  in  all  animals  leads  to 
association  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  (mating  and  breeding 
seasons),  and  when  the  young  have  a  distinct  period  of  in- 
fancy (with  attendant  helplessness),  the  need  of  parental 
care  may  prolong  the  association  or  lead  to  something  like 
family  flfe.  In  human  beings  adolescence  marks  the  ripen- 
ing of  a  number  of  racial  tendencies  known  as  the  social  or 
group  instincts.  Among  these  tendencies  are  the  seeking  to 
be  where  other  persons  are  (gregariousness,  need  of  society), 
seeking  to  win  the  good  will  of  others  (love  of  approbation, 
need  of  "  getting-on  "  with  people),  and  seeking  to  help  or 
assist  others  by  positive  service  (altruism,  self-sacrifice). 
We  do  not  need  to  assume  that  these  instinctive  responses 
to  the  situations  of  daily  life  are  seen  only  during  or  after 
puberty,  or  that  they  are  manifested  in  the  same  way  by  all 
adolescents,  or  that  no  other  causes  conspire  to  elicit  them 
than  the  biological  upheaval  of  puberty.  The  essential  thing 
is  that  these  types  of  feeling  and  behavior  are  normally  in- 
tensified as  the  body  assumes  preparedness  for  the  functions 
of  racial  perpetuation.  Compared  with  the  relatively  self- 
centered  life  of  the  child,  the  life  of  the  adolescent  is  shot 
through  with  consciousness  of  self  as  related  to  other  persons. 
His  outlook  is  hetero-centric,  not  ego-centric.  His  behavior 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       273 

has  constantly  a  social  reference.  He  considers  himself  in 
relation  to  others. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  show  how  important  these  social 
tendencies  are  from  every  point  of  view.  On  their  successful 
development  and  utilization  depend  the  last  and  perhaps 
most  significant  advances  in  mental  development.  Failure 
to  make  these  high  adolescent  adjustments  is  the  cause  of 
much  inefficiency,  failure,  and  misery.1  The  skillful  second- 
ary-school teacher  sees  in  them  both  the  cardinal  problem 
of  adolescent  moral  training  and  the  means  whereby,  if  at 
all,  this  training  may  be  realized.  A  brief  survey  of  these 
tendencies  will,  then,  enable  us  to  discuss  their  utilization 
in  the  school. 

Gregariousncss.  —  The  assumption  of  these  new  attitudes 
is  not  the  work  of  a  moment.  On  the  contrary  one  sees  a 
vacillation  between  the  childish  and  the  youthful  attitudes. 
The  readjustment  takes  time,  and  contradictory  behavior 
appears.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  gregariousness,  many  young 
adolescents,  particularly  boys,  pass  through  a  stage  of  what 
is  almost  a  fear  of  society,  characterized  by  bashfulness, 
diffidence,  extreme  self-consciousness,  clumsiness,  blushing 
and  dread  of  committing  some  gaucherie.  This  anti-social 
attitude  is  shown  primarily  in  the  presence  of  the  opposite 
sex,  and  probably  more  often  by  those  who  are  brought  up 
alone,-  or  \vhose  conduct  has  been  the  subject  of  too  much 
criticism  or  censure  by  parents  or  friends. 

Sympathy.  —  Another  phase  of  the  social  tendencies,  per- 
haps sufficiently  definite  to  be  classed  as  a  specific  instinct, 
is  that  disposition  to  enter  appreciatively  into  the  lives  and 
especially  into  the  misfortunes  of  others  - —  in  other  words,  to 
be  sympathetic.  A  sort  of  pseudo-sympathy  develops  in 

1  E.  B.  Iluey,  Retardation  and  the  Mental  Examination  of  Retarded  Children. 
Jour,  of  Psycho-Asthcnirs,  15:  igio,  31-43. 

-  E.  \V.  Uohannon,  The  Only  Child  in  a  Family.  Fed.  Sen;.,  5  :  iSqS.  475- 
496. 

T 


274  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

very  young  children,  but  genuine  sympathy  is  rarely  dis- 
played before  adolescence.  On  it  evidently  depend  a  number 
of  important  ethical  traits  and  activities,  like  kindness,  benev- 
olence, charity,  and  philanthropy.  Moral  training  in  the 
secondary  school  must  aim  to  ensure  an  adequate  develop- 
ment of  these  essential  social  virtues. 

Approbation.  —  The  inclination  so  to  act  as  to  win  the  ap- 
probation of  others  is  obviously  enough  applied  to  instincts 
underlying  courtship.  But,  by  extension,  the  adolescent 
wants  also  to  win  the  approval  of  others  than  the  individual 
of  the  opposite  sex  who  serves  as  the  special  object  of  attrac- 
tion. The  adolescent  wants  to  make  a  name  for  himself,  to 
feel  that  he  has  the  good  opinion  of  parents,  teachers,  and 
schoolmates.1  That  indefinable  something  we  call  "  public 
sentiment  "  now  has  profound  weight.  "  Social  pressure  " 
has  now  a  real  significance.  What  the  adolescent  eats, 
wears,  says,  and  does  is  largely  determined  by  what  he  thinks 
other  people  will  approve.  Boys  and  girls  do  this  and  that 
because  "  it  is  the  thing."  Needless  to  say  that  this  tendency 
may  prove  a  powerful  lever  in  the  hands  of  the  teacher. 
"  Children  thus  often  become  what  their  teachers  believe 
them  to  be,  and  many  a  boy  has  been  saved  by  the  faith  re- 
posed in  him  by  teacher,  parent,  or  friend."  But  the  same 
tendency  may,  of  course,  become  an  equally  powerful  deter- 
miner for  evil  if  the  wrong  kind  of  approval  be  sought  for : 
a  criminal  might  rejoice  in  being  esteemed  the  toughest  mem- 
ber of  his  "  gang." 

Sometimes  this  desire  for  approbation  is  abnormally  strong, 
so  that  the  adolescent  has  an  almost  morbid  dread  of  antag- 

1  In  asking  college  students  what  incentives  motivate  their  daily  work,  I  have 
been  struck  with  the  uniformly  high  place  accorded  such  factors  as  "Desire 
to  please  my  parents,"  and  "Desire  to  stand  well  in  the  opinion  of  my  friends.'' 
These  motives  arc,  1  judge,  more  potent  in  maintaining  effort  through  the  labor 
of  daily  tasks  than  the  remoter  incentives  like  "Desire  to  be  of  service  to  man- 
kind," "  Desire  to  get  a  good  position,"  or  "  Desire  to  acquire  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  subjects  I  am  studying." 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       275 

onizing  his  associates  :  he  assents  to  all  their  opinions  ;  he 
effaces  himself  completely,  and  becomes  a  sort  of  social 
parasite.1 

Altruism.  —  Altruistic  tendencies  add  one  more  step  to  the 
progress  of  socialization,  for  they  impel  the  adolescent  not 
only  to  associate  with  others,  to  sympathize  with  them,  and 
so  to  act  as  to  insure  their  approbation,  but  also  to  perform 
positive  service  lor  them,  at  his  own  discomfort  or  disadvan- 
tage. This  trait  is  not  one  to  be  gained  in  a  moment.  Al- 
truistic conduct  may  alternate  with  utter  selfishness.  In- 
deed, paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  genuine  selfishness  may  be 
more  evident  in  adolescence  than  in  childhood.  The  self- 
centered  career  of  the  child  is  natural  and  instinctive,  whereas 
the  adolescent  chooses  between  conflicting  tendencies,  and 
if  selfishly,  then  in  the  face  of  his  appreciation  of  duty  and 
obligation  to  others.  But,  in  general,  adolescence  is,  as 
Hall  says :  "  The  great  period  in  life  for  devotion  to  others, 
especially  in  self-sacrificing  causes.  Pledges,  agreements,  vows, 
and  other  restrictions  on  one's  freedom  are  made  at  this  period 
with  a  joyous  enthusiasm."  As  we  shall  see  later  on,  these 
altruistic  tendencies  lie  at  the  root  of  the  proclivity  of  adoles- 
cents to  indulge  in  various  forms  of  philanthropy,  to  champion 
reform  movements,  and  to  plan  careers  of  social  service. 

Self-organized  Groups.  —  If  we  turn  now  to  concrete 
instances  of  the  operation  of  the  social  tendencies,  perhaps 
first  in  order  is  the  instance  of  self  -organized  groups,  or  "gangs." 
Sheldon2  found  that  851  of  1034  boys  would  admit  member- 

1  Probably  this  disposition  accounts  for  certain  cases  of  apparent  religious 
conversion,  with  subsequent  backsliding.  Social  pressure,  personal  appeal  of 
pastor,  parents,  or  friends,  and  the  highly  emotional  setting  make  a  combina- 
tion of  great  suggestive  power  while  it  lasts. 

-  H.  Sheldon,  The  Institutional  Activities  of  American  Children.  .1  mcr.  Jour, 
of  Psych.,  9:  1898,  425-448.  See  also  \V.  B.  Forbush,  The  Boy  Problem  (4th 
ed.  Phila.,  1902),  and  T.  J.  Browne,  Boys'  Gangs.  Association  Outlook,  8: 
iSqo,  96-107.  Louis  D.  Hartson,  The  Psychology  of  the  Club:  a  Study  in 
Social  Psychology.  Pcd.  Scm.,  18 :  September,  1911,  353-414  (with  bibliog- 
raphy of  89  titles.)  J.  A.  Puffer,  The  Boy  and  his  Gang.  Boston,  1912. 


276  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ship  in  some  such  rudimentary  society.  The  years  10  to  17, 
particularly  n,  12,  and  13,  are  those  in  which  membership 
is  commonest.  The  motives  and  activities  of  these  societies 
are  of  evident  interest  to  teachers  and  parents  who  would 
understand  and  control  them,  or  who  would  themselves 
organize  or  direct  societies  for  young  adolescents.  Of  123 
spontaneously  formed  societies,  Sheldon  found  the  prevailing 
motive  (in  61  per  cent)  to  be  athletic,  with  another  phase  of 
physical  activity,  the  predatory  —  hunting,  fighting,  camp- 
ing out,  etc. — next  in  order  (17  per  cent).  On  the  other 
hand,  industrial,  philanthropic,  literary,  artistic,  and  merely 
•social  purposes  are  all  less  frequently  exhibited.  It  appears 
that  the  moral  tone  of  these  organizations  tends,  on  the  whole, 
to  deteriorate,  so  that  hoodlumism,  lawlessness,  destruction  of 
property,  and  even  more  serious  crimes,  such  as  arson,  larceny, 
assault,  organized  theft,  and  even  murder,  may  ultimately 
develop.  Under  more  favorable  circumstances,  however, 
the  better  social  traits  may  prevail,  so  that,  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  gang  grow  older,  intellectual  interests  may  sup- 
plant the  physical  activity  interests.  It  appears,  furthermore, 
that  boys  and  girls  do  not  naturally  organize  together,  and 
that  the  type  of  spontaneous  organization  formed  by  girls 
tends  to  differ  from  that  formed  by  boys,  being  more  frequently 
social,  philanthropic  and  literary  than  athletic  or  predatory. 
Girls  tend  more  strongly,  also,  to  join  societies  organized  for 
them  by  adults  than  to  organize  societies  of  their  own. 

Maxims  for  Organizing  Societies.  —  Those  who  have  had 
experience  with  controlling  or  organizing  societies  for  young 
adolescents 1  are  in  general  agreement  upon  the  following 
principles:  (i)  Boys  should  be  sought  at  about  the  age  of 
10  and  their  natural  "  gang  instinct  "  supervised  or  controlled 
until  it  has  died  out  or  has  been  permanently  directed  toward 
worthy  ends.  (2)  The  basis  and  at  least  the  initial  stages  of 

1  See,  in  addition  to  Sheldon  and  Forbush,  \Vinifred  Buck,  Boys'  Self- 
Governing  Clubs.  New  York,  1903. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       277 

any  society  organized  for  boys  must  be  sought  in  some  phase 
of  physical  activity.  Literary,  ethical,  scientific,  or  religious 
activities  must  be  annexed,  not  too  obtrusively,  to  the  physical 
activity  interest.  Even  in  seriously  purposed  efforts  to  reach 
boys,  the  seriousness  must  not  be  too  evident ;  the  didactic 
element  must  not  be  too  prominent.  (3)  The  sexes  are  best 
organized  separately ;  boys  should  be  led  by  a  manly  man 
with  a  bit  of  athletic  ability,  considerable  patience,  and  tact. 
(4)  It  is  difficult  successfully  to  maintain  a  society  whose 
members  are  of  different  types,  of  different  social  stations, 
or  perhaps  from  different  neighborhoods.  (5)  Leaders  of 
societies  for  boys  and  girls  at  this  stage  of  maturity  must 
not  hope  for  great  permanence  in  the  organization  ;  jealousies, 
disputes,  and  unexpected  dissensions  frequently  disrupt  them, 
however  skillful  the  leader  may  be. 

Variety  of  Adult-made  Societies.  —  Nearly  every  adolescent, 
besides  participating  in  spontaneous  organizations,  finds 
further  outlet  for  his  social  tendencies  by  affiliating  himself 
with  some  form  of  social  organization  directed  or  instituted 
by  adults.  The  number  and  variety  of  these  adult-made 
organizations  is  surprisingly  great  —  instance  such  institu- 
tions as  the  summer  camps,  Boy  Scouts,  Boys'  Brigades,  de- 
bating societies,  school  literary  and  musical  organizations, 
civic  and  patriotic  societies,  nature-study  clubs,  city-history 
clubs,  social-settlement  clubs,  the  Knights  of  King  Arthur, 
the  Animal  Protective  League,  The  Loyal  Temperance  Le- 
gion, the  Band  of  Mercy,  the  Captains  of  Ten,  the  Epworth 
League,  the  Boys'  Branch  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Junior  En- 
deavor Society,  the  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew,  the  Sun- 
day School,  and  a  host  of  others.  Into  their  several  merits 
and  defects,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  needs  and  nature  of 
the  adolescent,  this  is  not  the  place  to  enter.  As  Forbush 
has  shown,  no  one  of  them  is  "  the  best."  Few  of  them,  un- 
fortunately, make  appeal  to  all,  or  even  to  many  sides  of  adoles- 
cent nature,  and  in  so  far  probably  fail  to  make  the  strongest 


278  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

possible  appeal  to  their  clientele.  Yet  the  idea  of  banding 
adolescents  together  for  concerted  action,  even  for  a  limited 
and  somewhat  selfish  purpose,  is  undoubtedly  worth  while  and 
is  a  first  step  toward  attaining  that  wider  unselfishness  that 
seeks  the  best  good  of  society  at  large. 

School  Organizations.  —  Within  the  school  itself,  the  tend- 
ency toward  organization  has  apparently  greatly  augmented 
during  the  past  decade.  We  find  in  the  ordinary  high  school 
various  school  and  class  organizations  (class  meetings,  musical 
clubs,  sketch  clubs,  art  clubs,  school  periodicals,  etc.),  as- 
sociations dealing  with  athletics  and  military  drill,  and  secret 
fraternal  organizations.  These  latter  are  sufficiently  im- 
portant to  deserve  separate  consideration.  As  for  the  other 
associations  and  organizations  we  may  summarize  the  con- 
clusions reached  by  the  comprehensive  investigation  of  the 
Massachusetts  Council  of  Education,1  as  follows : 

1.  "  Class  organizations,  literary  societies,  musical  organiza- 
tions, art  clubs,  and  school  papers  are  helpful  to  the  pupils 
and  a  benefit  to  the  school,  provided  they  are  under  the  over- 
sight of  the  school  authorities. 

2.  "  Class    committees    for    purposes    partly    commercial 
(class  pins,  photographs,  dances,  etc.)  are  especially  in  need 
of  the  most  exacting  regulations. 

3.  "  While  more  than  half  of  the  athletic  associations  which 
include  and  direct  the  varied  athletic  activities  of  the  school 
are  under  the  supervision,  more  or  less  complete,  of  the  teachers 
of  the  schools,  the  right  to  control  has  been  assumed  rather 
than  assured.     Under  this  assumed  control  the  participation 
in  athletics  is  conditioned  upon  rank  in  scholarship. 

4.  "  A  large  majority  of  the  teachers  reporting  consider 
athletics  a  benefit  to  the  schools.     Sixty-five  per  cent  believe 
that  both  scholarship  and  discipline  are  improved.     But  all 

1  Report  on  Organizations  among  High  School  Pupils.  (T.  C.  Whitcomb, 
Chairman  of  Committee),  6gth  An.  Rcpt.  Brd.  l-Auc.  Mass.,  1904-1905.  Boston, 
January  1906.  Public  Doc.  No.  2,  pp.  178-198. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       279 

agree  that  this  is  only  true  when  all  such  matters  are  under 
the  control  of  the  school  authorities." 

High  School  Secret  Societies.  -  A  problem  of  special  in- 
terest to  high  school  administrators  is  set  by  the  development 
in  recent  years  of  the  special  form  of  social  organization  known 
as  the  secret  society.  The  motives  that  have  led  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  fraternity  and  sorority  in  the  secondary  school 
are  primarily  two  in  number  :  first,  the  influence  of  the  general 
instinctive  tendency  toward  the  formation  of  social  groups 
that  we  have  been  considering ;  secondly,  the  tendency  to 
imitate  college  customs.  While  there  is  nothing  intrinsically 
evil  in  either  of  these  tendencies,  their  actual  crystallization 
in  the  high  school  secret  society  has  unquestionably  been 
attended  with  evil  consequences,  so  that  at  the  present  day, 
with  a  very  few  minor  exceptions,  school  boards,  superin- 
tendents, and  high  school  principals  and  teachers  are  posi- 
tively and  strenuously  opposed  to  them. 

The  arguments  for  and  against  the  high  school  secret  society 
may  be  summarized  as  follows  :  J 

Alleged  Merits.  —  (i)  They  satisfy  the  desire  for  social 
organization  and  promote  fellowship  among  pupils.  (2)  They 

1  See  for  a  more  detailed  outline,  W.  T.  Foster,  Argumentation  and  Debating 
(Boston,  1908),  pp.  202-217. 

The  following  are  a  few  characteristic  references  on  the  topic  :  K.  G.  Godfrey, 
High  School  Fraternities  and  Sororities;  the  Illiberal  Education  of  the  Young 
American  Snob.  Sat.  Evening  Post  (Phila.),  January  7,  1005.  W.  Hard,  High 
School  Fraternities;  Farce, Tragedy,  and  Statesmanship.  Everybody's  Mag.,  21  : 
August,  IQOQ,  173-183.  P.  B.  Kohlsaat,  Secondary  School  Fraternities  not  a 
Factor  in  Determining  Scholarship,  Sell.  Rev.,  13  :  1905,  272-274.  W.  B.  Owen, 
The  Problem  of  the  High  School  Fraternity.  Sell.  Rev.,  14:  1906,  492-504. 
G.  I).  Pettce,  School  Work  and  Secret  Fraternities  (address  in  pamphlet 
form,  given  at  University  School,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  January  12,  1905).  Report  of 
the  Committee  on  Secret  Fraternities,  Proc.  X.E.A.,  1005,  445-451.  X.Melius, 
Arc  Secret  Societies  a  Danger  to  our  High  Schools?  Rev.  of  Rev.,  36:  1907, 
338-341.  S.  R.  Smith,  Report  Committees  on  the  Influence  of  Fraternities  in 
Secondary  Schools.  Sell.  Rev.,  13  :  1905,  i-io.  The  important  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Washington  may  be  found  in  Jour,  of  Ediie.,  64  : 
December  6,  1906,  607;  also  in  Sell.  Rev.,  14:  1906,  739-745  and  Hull.  Xo.  3 
L'.  S.  Bur.  Educ.,  1906,  136-141. 


2 So  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

help  to  raise  the  standard  of  scholarship  of  their  members. 

(3)  They  contain  the  best  and  most  representative  pupils. 

(4)  They  support  all  school  activities  and  can  accomplish 
more  in  this  direction  than  a  far  greater  number  of  unorganized 
individuals.     (5)  They  furnish  an  opportunity  for  innocent, 
healthful  good  times.     (6)   Old  members  keep  up  a  greater 
interest   in    their    school    after    graduation.     (7)    Fraternity 
members  are  often  assisted  by  meeting  wearers  of  their  pin 
in  various  places  outside  of  their  home  town  or  city.     (8)  They 
reduce    or    eliminate   undesirable    rivalry   between   different 
high  schools.     (9)  Some  of  them  perform  a  small,  but  sincere 
work  in  the  direction  of  philanthropy  and  charity.     (10)  Their 
exercises  afford  opportunity  for  training  in  literary,  artistic, 
and  other  lines  of  activity,     (n)  They  cannot  be  undemo- 
cratic and  clannish,  because  they  are  not  in  operation  during 
classroom  exercises  and  other  schoolroom  activities. 

Alleged  Faults.  —  (i)  They  are  essentially  unnecessary. 
(2)  They  are  fundamentally  opposed  in  conception  to  the 
democratic  spirit  underlying  the  whole  theory  of  public  school 
education.  (3)  In  selecting  members,  they  often  draw 
racial,  social,  religious,  or  professional  lines  and  thus  tend  to 
promote  snobbery  and  caste.  (4)  They  interfere  with  school 
politics  by  combinations,  trades,  and  other  "  underground  " 
methods.  (5)  If  their  average  scholarship  is  not  inferior 
to  that  of  non-fraternity  pupils,  it  is  at  least  lower  than  it 
would  be  if  the  societies  were  abolished.  (6)  Their  social 
functions  exact  too  much  time  and  energy.  (7)  They  "  offer 
temptations  to  imitate  the  amusements  and  relaxations  of 
adult  life  (card  playing,  smoking,  dancing,  late  hours,  etc.) 
while  their  members  have  not  acquired  the  power  of  guiding 
their  actions  by  mature  judgment.'"  (8)  When  rooms  or 
houses  are  occupied,  members  often  spend  time  in  them 
which  should  be  devoted  to  school  work.  (9)  These  club 
houses  and  rooms  tend  strongly  to  induce  extravagance. 
(10)  They  tend,  furthermore,  equally  strongly  to  moral  de- 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       281 

terioration :  in  some  instances,  vice  has  developed  to  alarm- 
ing proportions,  (u)  The  societies  often  interfere  boldly 
with  the  administration  of  school  discipline.  (12)  Initiation 
ceremonies,  especially  in  the  earlier  days,  have  been  degrading, 
if  not  positively  dangerous  to  life  and  health. 

Solutions  of  the  Fraternity  Problem.  —  There  may  be  dis- 
cerned three  administrative  attitudes  toward  the  high  school 
fraternities,  viz :  non-interference,  regulation,  and  suppres- 
sion. Those  who  officially  ignore  the  secret  societies  do  so 
either  because  they  do  not  find  them  undesirable  or  because 
they  are  afraid  to  move  against  them.1  Systems  of  regu- 
lation have  commonly  worked  by  (i)  limiting  the  number 
of  societies,  (2)  prescribing  time,  place,  and  character  of  meet- 
ings, (3)  prohibiting  membership  without  the  written  con- 
sent of  parents  and  the  indorsement  of  the  principal,  and 
(4)  overseeing  social  functions  and  other  activities  of  the 
organizations.  Suppression  may  be  accomplished  by  moral 
suasion  under  favorable  conditions 2  but  otherwise  formal 
proceedings  must  be  instituted.  These  usually  take  the  form 
of  regulations  drawn  up  by  the  board  of  education  withdraw- 
ing school  privileges  (participation  in  honors,  membership  in 
athletic  teams,  class  offices,  graduation  honors,  etc.)  from 
all  who  continue  in  membership.  In  the  few  instances  in 
which  the  fraternities  have  contested  this  regulation  by  re- 
sort to  law,  the  decisions  have  favored  the  school  authorities. 
Most  important  is  the  decision  handed  down  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  of  Washington  wrhich  fully  upheld  the  posi- 
tion of  the  school  board  of  Seattle,  despite  the  contention 
of  the  contestants  that  the  fraternal  activities  were  private 

1  There  is  a  real  danger  here.     A  writer  in  the  Journal  of  Education,  April  4, 
1907,  declares  that  "any  high  school  principal  is  liable  to  take  his  livelihood  in 
his  hands  when  he  attacks  those  in  his  school"  and  that  experience  has  shown 
that  "it  is  safe  to  antagonize  them  when  a  principal  is  sure  of  the  loyal  support 
of  his  faculty,  of  the  unanimous  and  unhesitating  support  of  his  board  of  educa- 
tion and  of  the  editorial  and  news  departments  of  all  the  local  press." 

2  See,  for  an  instance,  Pettee,  op.  ell. 


282  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

affairs,  outside  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  school  authorities. 
The  final  stage  in  the  movement  against  this  special  form  of 
social  organization  is  seen  in  the  enactment  in  several  states 
(e.g.  Kansas,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  California,  Michigan, 
Mississippi,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Oregon)  of  general  legislation  1 
absolutely  prohibiting  the  establishment  or  continuance  of 
secret  societies  in  the  secondary  schools  of  the  state. 

Self-government  Plans.  —  The  transition  to  which  at- 
tention has  repeatedly  been  called  from  the  control  by  others 
of  childhood  to  the  self-control  of  maturity,  taken  in  con- 
junction with  the  manifest  tendency  to  work  together  in 
teams,  groups,  committees,  and  other  combinations,  suggests 
very  strongly  that  in  the  high  school,  if  anvwhere  in  the  public 
schools,  some  form  of  pupil  self-government  would  be  logical 
and  presumably  successful.  There  have  been  developed  in 
recent  years  a  number  of  widely  heralded  plans  for  compassing 
this  end. 

The  "School  City."  —  A  characteristic  plan  is  that  known 
as  the  "  school  city."  In  this,  each  pupil  is  a  citizen;  each 
room  is  called  a  ward,  and  practically  all  the  officials  of  a 
regular  city  government  —  mayor,  aldermen,  board  of  health, 
police,  city  judge,  and  so  on  —  are  represented  in  the  govern- 
ment, with  such  adaptations  as  are  required  by  the  special 
purposes  of  school  government.  The  monthly  elections  follow 
prescribed  forms,  and  one  purpose  of  the  plan  is  to  afford 
concrete  training  in  the  operations  of  municipal  government. 
In  the  extreme  applications  of  the  scheme,  all  school  problems 
outside  of  classroom  instruction,  and  especially,  of  course, 
all  problems  of  discipline,  are  handled  by  this  pupil-govern- 
ment, with  a  minimum  of  interference  by  the  principal  or 
teachers.  These  school  cities  have  been  organized  in  gram- 
mar and  even  in  primary  grades,  though  there  seems,  a  priori, 
to  be  little  sanction  for  the  turning  of  the  control  of  vounger 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       283 

pupils  into  their  own  hands.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  plan 
does  not  always  work  successfully  in  the  high  school.  So 
far  as  the  writer's  observation  extends,  the  school  city  is 
taken  up  with  enthusiasm  and  enjoys  a  period  of  success, 
only,  sooner  or  later,  to  become  too  arduous :  the  novelty  of 
the  enterprise  wears  off ;  jealousies  and  intrigue  threaten  the 
undertaking ;  over-harsh  punishments  are  meted  out ;  the 
training  in  cheap  politics  and  "  graft  "  becomes,  perhaps, 
more  evident  than  the  training  in  citizenship ;  the  teachers 
find  their  hands  full  in  controlling  the  machinery,  and  finally 
the  whole  affair  collapses  in  failure. 

Simpler  Self -government  Plans.  —  A  less  intricate,  and 
apparently  more  successful  form  of  pupil  self-government, 
in  operation  in  the  Polytechnic  High  School  of  Los  Angeles 
and  in  certain  high  schools  in  Philadelphia  and  St.  Louis,1 
provides  that  one  boy  and  one  girl  be  elected,  every  term, 
from  each  of  the  three  upper  classes,  from  a  list  of  candidates 
whose  scholarship  is  above  a  certain  standard.  Those  elected 
form  two  committees,  one  for  each  sex,  who  have  entire  charge 
of  the  conduct  of  pupils,  see  that  order  is  maintained  in  hall, 
study  and  recitation  rooms,  and  even,  to  some  extent,  in  the 
yards.  They  have  authority,  even  to  actual  suspension, 
though  only  in  consultation  with  teachers  when  dealing  with 
extreme  cases.  The  results  of  this  form  of  self-government 
(which  is,  one  may  say,  an  oligarchy  or  "  aristocracy,"  as  com- 
pared with  the  "  democracy  "  of  the  school  city)  are  said  to 
be  excellent,  provided  that  both  parents  and  pupils  give  full 
adherence  and  that  the  committees  are  absolutely  fair  and  are 
properly  supported  by  the  teachers.  The  idea  seems  difficult, 
but  worth  trying  when  conditions  are  favorable.2 

1  Bertha  H.  Smith,  Self-Government  in  Public  Schools.  All.  Mo.,  102: 
1908,  675-678. 

-  For  further  literature  on  pupil  self-government,  see  O.  P.  Cornman,  The 
School  City:  an  Inquiry  Concerning  its  Success  and  Value.  Proc.  of  the  New 
York  Conference  for  Good  City  Government,  1005,  280-289.  B.  Cronson,  Pupil 
Self-government.  Xe\v  York,  1907.  C.  \V.  French,  School  Government.  Sch. 


284  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Group  Work  in  the  Classroom.  —  If  the  social  instincts  of 
high  school  pupils  may  be  utilized  with  some  success  in  con- 
trolling discipline  through  various  self-government  plans, 
it  is  but  natural  to  believe  that  the  spirit  of  cooperation  might 
be  utilized  within  the  classroom  as  well.  In  a  few  high  schools 
where  this  type  of  group  work  has  been  tried,  the  results 
have,  indeed,  seemed  very  favorable.  The  scheme  resembles 
in  many  ways  the  "  seminary  "  type  of  instruction  of  the  uni- 
versity. The  various  topics  or  phases  of  the  subject  studied 
are  delegated  to  the  several  pupils  of  the  class :  each  pupil 
reports  upon  the  topics  assigned  to  him,  while  the  other 
members  criticize,  question,  or  discuss  his  report. 

A  characteristic  instance  of  this  type  of  group  work  has  been 
reported  from  the  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  high  school. 
Here  the  plan  has  been  tried  with  classes  in  ancient  history, 
United  States  history,  and  civil  government.  The  recitation 
took  on  the  form  of  a  business  meeting,  with  a  president, 
vice  president,  and  secretary.  The  lesson  was  conducted 
by  the  class,  with  the  teacher  as  "  executive  officer  "  —  a 
court  of  final  appeal.  The  "  report  of  the  last  meeting," 
read  by  the  secretary,  served  as  a  review.  The  carrying  out 
of  this  work  led  to  the  formation  of  various  secondary  groups, 
such  as  a  Drawing  Club,  a  Camera  Club,  a  Library  Club,  a 
Current-Events  Club,  a  "  Sidelights  Club,"  etc.1 

Rev.,  6:  1898,  35-44.  C.  W.  French,  The  School  City.  Sch.  Rev.,  13:  1905. 
33-41.  G.  H.  Martin,  Student  Self-government.  Proc.  Chicago  Confer,  for 
Good  City  Government,  1904,  279-282.  W.  A.  McAndrew,  High  School  Self- 
government.  Sch.  Rev.,  5-:  1907,  456-460.  J.  T.  Ray,  Pupil  Self-government, 
Jour,  of  Ediic.,  October  25,  1906.  T.  R.  Slicer,  The  School  City  as  a  Form  of 
Student  Government.  Proc.  Chicago  Confer.  Good  City  Government,  1904,  283- 
293.  C.  H.  Thurber,  High  School  Self-government.  Sch.  Rev..  5:  1007,  32- 
35.  P.  A.  Walker,  Self-government  in  the  High  School.  Elem.  Sch.  Teacher, 
7:  1907,  451-457. 

1  Lotta  A.  Clark,  Group  Work  in  the  High  School.  Elem.  Sen.  Teacher,  7  : 
1907,  335-344.  Sec  also  C.  B.  Shaw,  Some  Experiments  in  Group  Work,  ibid. 
329-334.  Colin  A.  Scott,  Social  Education,  Boston,  1908,  especially  Chaps.  VI 
and  VII ;  and  J.  Dewey,  School  and  Society,  Chicago,  1900. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       285 

The  advantages  claimed  for  group  work  in  the  classroom 
are :  (i)  It  utilizes  the  natural  instinctive  tendencies  of  the 
period.  (2)  It  trains  the  pupils  to  work  cooperatively. 
(3)  It  permits  the  individual  pupil  to  concentrate  his  energy 
upon  the  particular  thing  that  he  most  wants  to  do.  (4)  It 
stimulates  constructive  criticism  by  pupils  of  the  work  of 
their  mates,  and  apparently  appeals  more  powerfully  than 
ordinary  recitation  work  to  the  instincts  of  competition  and 
desire  for  approbation.  (5)  It  develops  more  enthusiasm 
for  study,  makes  the  school  work  more  real  and  personal, 
less  imposed  from  without. 

Possible  disadvantages  would  seem  to  be :  (i)  It  may  pro- 
ceed slowly  and  take  too  much  time.  (2)  It  may  fail  to  yield 
a  proper  perspective  of  the  subject  matter.  (3)  Pupils  may 
fail  to  have  a  thorough  understanding  or  permanent  acquisi- 
tion of  those  topics  or  phases  of  the  subject  matter  not  studied 
by  themselves.  In  some  subjects  where  drill  in  all  details 
is  essential  this  would  seem  to  constitute  a  fatal  obstacle  to 
the  plan.  (4)  Idle  or  incompetent  pupils  may  shirk  their 
assignments  or  present  them  so  poorly  that  nothing  would 
be  gained  for  the  class.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  idea  of 
group  work  in  the  classroom  deserves  more  attention  than 
has  yet  been  accorded  it. 

RELIGIOUS  AND  MORAL  ASPECTS  OF  ADOLES- 
CENCE. In  the  religious  life  of  its  members,  the  public 
secondary  school  can  have,  of  course,  no  direct  participation  ; 
nevertheless,  this  life  is  so  often  profoundly  modified  during 
adolescence  and  with  such  decided  effect  upon  motives, 
ideals,  and  conduct  that  the  teacher  cannot  afford  to  remain 
ignorant  of  the  main  features  of  this  spiritual  reconstruction. 

Religious  Conversion  in  Adolescence.  —  Adolescence  is 
preeminently  the  time  for  religious  conversion.  Lancaster 
reports  that,  of  598  young  people,  518  were  ready  to  admit 
and  describe  to  him  a  religious  experience  akin  to  conversion, 
which  occurred,  for  the  most  part,  between  the  ages  12  and 


286  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

20.  Statistics  secured  in  various  ways  confirm  the  results  of 
questionaries  and  indicate  that  the  years  15,  16,  and  17  are 
the  years  of  greatest  religious  impressionability. 

The  Explanation.  —  The  explanation  of  these  facts  is  not 
far  to  seek.  The  maturing  of  the  sex  instinct,  with  its  strong 
attendant  social  instincts,  means  inevitably,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  process  of  readjustment  toward  life,  a  transition  from  an 
individualistic  to  a  social  attitude,  from  egoism  to  altruism. 
If  conversion,  stripped  of  its  theological  implications,  means 
a  resolution  to  become  unselfish,  to  array  one's  self  on  the 
side  of  right  living,  to  sacrifice  one's  own  desires  for  the  wel- 
fare of  others,  then  it  is  evident  that  what  we  might  term  a 
"  secular  conversion  "  is  normal  in  adolescent  development, 
and  is  really  biologically  determined.  This  converting  (liter- 
ally, turning)  is  by  theology  envisaged  as  a  turning  from  sin 
unto  holiness.  Most  adolescents,  surrounded,  as  they  are,  by 
the  strong  and  pervading  influence  of  the  church,  come  natu- 
rally to  experience  this  instinctive  readjustment  of  attitude 
as  a  religious  readjustment.  Many  thinkers  have  felt,  ac- 
cordingly, that  the  richest  service  and  most  vital  task  of  re- 
ligion is  to  take  charge  of  this  transition  from  self-love  to 
love  of  mankind,  to  make  the  transition  complete,  and  to 
conserve  and  direct  the  activities  of  the  adolescents  who  are 
experiencing  it. 

Tendencies  toward  Conventionalizing  Conversion.  —  But  there 
are  certain  dangers  attending  the  formalizing  by  religious 
bodies  of  the  experience  of  conversion.  Particularly,  to  in- 
sist too  much  upon  certain  "  patterns  "  of  conversion  is  un- 
warranted in  the  light  of  what  we  know  psychologically  of  the 
extreme  individuality  of  all  adolescent  experience.1  Even 

1  On  this  and  other  features  of  the  psychology  of  religion,  the  student  may 
consult:  E.  S.  Ames,  The  Psychology  of  Religions  Experience.  Boston,  1910. 
G.  A.  Coe,  The  Spiritual  Life:  Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Religion.  Xe\v 
York,  IQOO.  \V.  James,  The  Varitiii";  of  Religious  Experience:  <;  Study  in 
Human  Nature.  Xe\v  York.  1002.  A.  II.  Daniels.  The  Xe\v  Life:  a  Study  of 
Regeneration.  Amer.  Jour.  Psych.  6:  1803,61-106.  G.  S.  Hall, The  Religious 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       287 

now  some  theologians  teach  that  conversion  is  an  instanta- 
neous phenomenon,  whereas  the  rule  would  appear  to  be  other- 
wise ;  conversion  is  a  gradual  growth,  not  a  sudden  miraculous 
paroxysm.  Again,  there  is  a  tendency  to  conventionalize 
and  to  accentuate  the  various  stages  of  conversion  —  the 
"  conviction  of  sin,"  the  "  agonizing  in  prayer,"  the  joy  of  de- 
liverance, the  public  "  confession  "  are  sufficiently  illustrative. 
Some  adolescents  adopt  these  prescribed  or  approved  forms 
of  conversion,  but  others  fail  to  experience  them  clearly  and 
intensively,  and  may  suffer  exceedingly  from  what  they  regard 
as  abnormality  or  unworthiness  on  their  part.  Finally,  there 
is  a  tendency  to  encourage  early  conversion,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  conversion  of  children  is  clearly  theoretically  un- 
warranted and  nearly  always  practically  unsatisfactory. 

Periods  of  Intellectual  Reconstruction.  —  In  those  whose 
minds  are  intellectually  active  the  religious  experiences  of 
adolescence  are  rarely  had  without  passage  through  one  or 
more  periods  of  critical  reconstruction,  usually  with  doubt 
and  skepticism.  The  necessity  of  such  reconstruction  is 
fairly  obvious.  The  child  is  credulous,  imaginative,  sug- 
gestible. His  early  instruction  in  matters  religious  and 
philosophical  is  of  necessity  simplified,  metaphorical,  and 
partial.  Childish  notions  of  God,  heaven,  immortality,  sin, 
and  the  like  can  hardly  fail  to  dissatisfy  the  keener  intellect 
of  the  young  man  or  woman.  Mythical  interpretations  that 
appeased  juvenile  curiosity  are  too  crude  to  harmonize  with 
the  larger  knowledge  of  life  of  maturer  years,  and  must  go 
the  way  of  the  Santa  Claus  legends  of  childhood.1  While 
in  some  natures  this  reconstruction  of  the  cosmos  is  gradual, 
easy,  and  perhaps  never  completed,  in  others  it  is  radical  and 

Training  of  Children.  Educational  Problems,  Vol.  T,  Chap.  IV ;  also  Adolescence. 
J.  H.  Leuba,  Psychological  Study  of  Religion  ;  its  Origin,  Function  and  Future. 
New  York,  1912.  J.B.Pratt.  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Belief .  New  York, 
1907.  K.  I).  Starhuck,  The  Psychology  of  Religion.  New  York,  iSqg. 

1  Barnes,  Theological  Life  of  a  California  Child.    Pcd.  San.,  2  :  1893,  442-448. 


238  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

stormy.  Particularly  in  later  adolescence  may  the  uneasi- 
ness felt  by  glimmerings  of  inconsistencies  in  religious  views 
extend  to  general  doubt  and  uncertainty,  until,  finally,  all 
religious  belief  may  be  repudiated,  and  the  seeker  after  truth 
may  swing  over  to  agnosticism  or  indorse  some  system  of 
humanistic  ethics,  morality  without  religion,  or  whatever 
code  of  belief  best  fits  his  private  system  of  metaphysics. 
The  continuance  of  secular  instruction  through  high  school, 
college,  and  university  is  almost  certain  to  breed  a  period  of 
conflict  in  the  necessity  that  it  throws  upon  every  thoughtful 
student  to  readjust  his  earlier  views  in  the  light  of  his  contact 
with  science  and  philosophy  and  the  general  broadening  of 
his  mental  horizon. 

The  question  naturally  arises  whether  reconstruction,  es- 
pecially the  extremer  forms  of  highly  emotional,  soul-racking 
internal  struggle,  is  inevitable,  or  whether  it  might  be,  and 
should  be,  avoided  by  a  better  instruction  in  childhood. 
Some  individuals,  probably  the  minority,  experience  no 
serious  interruption  of  the  beliefs  of  childhood ;  the  majority, 
however,  begin,  it  appears,  by  doubting  some  phase  of  these 
beliefs,  e.g.  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  the  miracles,  the  biblical 
account  of  creation,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  the  goodness  of  God  in  permitting  evil,  etc.  While 
some  of  these  doubts  are  probably  inevitable,  others  of  them 
appear  to  be  the  product  of  mistaken  early  instruction,  par- 
ticularly of  instruction  that  tends  to  exalt  form  over  spirit, 
that  presents  the  Bible  as  an  inspired  system  of  theology 
rather  than  an  inspiring  guide  to  life,  that  stresses  dogma 
rather  than  the  religious  attitude.  As  Hall  says :  "  Of  all 
the  outrages  and  mutilations  practiced  upon  youth  by  well- 
meaning  adults,  insistence  on  such  dogma  upon  pain  of  moral 
offense  is  perhaps  the  very  most  disastrous  and  anti-religious 
in  its  results,  for  it  enlists  the  conscience  of  the  individual, 
at  an  age  when  it  is  most  vigorous  and  tender,  against  his  own 
normal  mental  development." 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       289 

Studies  of  Ideals.  —  Closely  allied  with  the  social  and 
religious  development  of  adolescence  is  a  characteristic  altera- 
tion of  ideals.  This  feature  has  been  well  brought  out  in 
numerous  studies,1  which  have  dealt  both  with  personal  ideals 
and  with  ideals  of  future  occupation.  The  usual  method 
has  been  to  ask  pupils  to  state  whom  they  would  most  like  to 
resemble  or  what  they  would  most  like  to  do  when  grown  up. 
Some  investigators  have  also  asked  for  reasons  for  the  choice 
indicated  ;  others  have  studied  "  negative  ideals  "  -  "  What 
person  would  you  most  want  not  to  be  like,  and  why?  " 

The  results  of  these  investigations  have  been  fairly  con- 
silient, and  permit  the  following  conclusions  : 

(i)  Ideals  depend  on  Age.  —  Despite  some  individual 
variations,  there  is  a  well-defined  trend  of  development  in 
ideals  from  childhood  to  maturity.  Curves  may  be  plotted, 
then,  to  show  the  rise  and  fall  of  this  or  that  ideal.  Younger 
children  mention  always  persons  in  their  own  family  or  in 
their  immediate  circle  of  acquaintances  and  are  impressed 
with  objective  values  —  wealth,  beauty,  social  station,  ma- 
terial possessions,  etc.  At  puberty  there  occurs  a  marked 
widening  of  the  range  of  ideals :  historic  characters,  public 
personages,  characters  in  fiction ,  and  even  imaginary  persons 
replace  the  members  of  the  family  circle,  while  intellectual, 

1  Earl  Barnes,  Children's  Ideals.  Ped.  Sen:.,  7:  1900,  3-12.  Earl  Barnes, 
Type  Study  onldeals.  Studies  in  Editc.,  2  :  1902,  36,  78,  115, 157,  198,  237,  277, 
3I9>  359  (9  papers).  Also,  Children's  Attitude  toward  Future  Occupation, 
ibid.,  243.  W.  G.  Chambers,  The  Evolution  of  Ideals.  Fed.  Son.,  18 :  1903, 
101-143  (with  23  references).  Estclle  M.  Darrah,  A  Study  of  Children's 
Ideals.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  53  :  1898,  88-98.  J.  Friedrich,  Die  Iclcale  dcr  Kinder. 
Ztits.  f.  piid.  Psych.,  3:  1901,  38.  H.  H.  Goddard.  Die  Idcale  der  Kinder. 
Zeits.  /.  cxp.  Piid.  5  :  1907,  Hft.  1-2.  H.  H.  Goddard,  Negative  Ideals, 
Studies  in  Ednc.,  2:  1902,392-398.  J.  I.  Jegi,  Children's  Ambitions.  Trans. 
III.  Soc.  for  Child  Study,  3:  1898,  131-144.  L.  \V.  Kline,  A  Study  in 
Juvenile  Ethics.  Ped.  Scm..  10:  1903,  239-266.  C.  H.  Thurber,  What  Chil- 
dren want  to  do  when  they  are  Men  and  Women.  Trans.  III.  Soc.  Child  Study,  2  : 
1897,  41-46.  See  also  Proc.  X.  E  A.,  1896.  J.  P.  Taylor,  Children's  Hopes. 
An.  Kept.  State  Sit  pi.  Pub.  Instruc.  N.  Y .,  1895-1896.  Adelaide  Wyckoff,  Chil- 
dren's Ideals.  Ped.  Scm.,  8  :  1901,  482-494. 


290          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

aesthetic,  moral,  and  religious  values  are  substituted  for  the 
more  material  values  of  childhood.  Moreover,  ideals  are 
evidently  more  vital  and  dynamic,  more  effective  in  motivating 
conduct  in  adolescence  than  in  childhood. 

(2)  Ideals  depend  on  Sex.  —  The  range  of  ideals  has  always 
been  found  more  restricted  in  girls  than  in  boys.     That  is, 
girls  tend  more  strongly  to  select  ideals  from  their  immediate 
environment  and  share  less  than  do  boys  in  the  broadening 
of  the  scope  of  ideals  at  adolescence.     Of  special  interest  is 
the  circumstance  that  whereas  boys  only  rarely  list  women 
as  their  ideals,  many  girls,  nearly  50  per  cent  in  fact,  find  their 
ideal  persons  in  the  opposite  sex  —  a  condition  of  affairs  that 
seems  particularly  unfortunate  for  young  girls  at  this  time 
when  ideals  of  womanhood  should  normally  be  developing. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  for  women  teachers  to  come  to  the 
rescue   of   their   sex.     In   the   lists   of   favored   occupations, 
teaching  is  most  favored  by  girls,  with  nursing,  dressmaking, 
and  millinery  frequently  cited ;   boys  are  somewhat  more  apt 
to  be  animated  by  money-making  motives. 

(3)  Ideals  depend  on  Home  Life  and  Social  Station.  —  The 
children  of  the  poor  have  relatively  simple  and  "  low  "  ideals, 
and  look  forward,  according  to  Thurber,  to  a  life  of  hard  work, 
with  little  pleasure. 

(4)  Ideals  depend  on   Type  of  School   Instruction.  —  This 
assertion  is  an  inference,  however,  from  the  fact  that  Eng- 
lish   and    especially    American    children    decidedly    surpass 
German  children  in   the  range  and  variety  of  their  ideals. 
It  is  possible  that  this  outcome  is  due  to  racial  or  tempera- 
mental differences,   but  Meumann  l   believes   that  it  points 
to   fundamental   differences   in   school   instruction.     German 
pedagogy  lays  too  great  stress  on  mere  intellectual  acquisi- 
tion, too  little  on  the  cultivation  of  personality.     If  this  be 
granted,  it  follows  that  it  is  highly  important  to  give  sys- 

1  E.  Meumann,  Vorlesungen  zur  Einfuhrung  in   d.  exp.  Pddag.,  2d   ed.,  I, 
624-628. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       291 

tematic  and  definite  attention  in  the  school  to  the  inculcation 
of  ideals.  In  Germany,  where  formal  instruction  in  religion 
and  religious  history  is  prominent,  it  appears  that  this  part 
of  the  teaching  has  little  effect  upon  ideals,  whereas  instruc- 
tion in  secular  history,  literature,  and  poetry  is  much  more 
potent.1 

(5)  The  Variety  oj  Occupational  Ideals  is  surprisingly  great. 
One  might  suppose  that  certain  careers  would  be  singled  out 
as  ideal  by  nearly  all  pupils.     But  in  some  1200  answers  to 
the  question  :  "  What  would  you  most  like  to  be  in  an  imagi- 
nary new  city?  "    -  114  different  occupations  were  specified. 

(6)  Their  Alterations.  —  Since  ideals  tend  to  change,  and 
to  change  with  special  rapidity  at  adolescence,  it  is  usually 
unfortunate  if  the  process  is  prematurely  arrested.     Thus, 
a  lad  of  1 8,  who  aspires  to  be  a  lawyer  and  an  orator,  had  at 
16  an  ambition  to  be  "  a  pugilist  and  all-round  sport."     Had 
his  teachers  and  parents  not  carried  him  past  this  earlier 
ideal,  the  results  may  well  have  been  disastrous.2 

(7)  Over -ambitious    Ideals.  —  In   many  adolescents    ideals 
are  curiously  and  excessively  ambitious  and  impossible  of 
realization.     Through  them  runs,  so  often,  a  social  and  ethical 
vein  which  impels  their  possessor  toward  philanthropic  and 
humanitarian    projects.     A    school    teacher    of    the    writer's 
acquaintance  summed  up  her  adolescent  ambitions  in  this 

1  That  skillfully  directed  efforts  may  accomplish  much  in  determining  future 
careers  of  students  is  well  illustrated  in  the  success  which  has  attended  the 
"Baiting  for  College"  schemes  of  some  high-school  principals,  who  have  set  up 
in  their  schools  cabinets  and  display  frames  with  photographs,  catalogues,  and 
other  significant  bits  of  information  about  various  colleges  and  universities. 

2  To  cite  another  typical  case  :  A  woman  who  is  now  a  successful  high  school 
teacher  of  science  wished  for  years  in  childhood  that  she  were  a  boy  in  order  to 
become  an  Episcopal  rector  (apparently  largely  attracted  by  his  robe).     In  her 
grammar  school  days  she  planned  to  become  a  tight-rope  walker  and  animal 
trainer  in  some  large  circus,  and  actually  trained  a  pet  dog  and  cat  and  tried  to 
walk  ropes  in  her  back  yard.     During  high  school  she  wanted  at  graduation  to 
open  a  large  dressmaking  shop,  but  she  was  induced  to  go  to  college,  got  inter- 
ested in  science,  and  finally  in  its  teaching. 


292  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

interesting  and  characteristic  series :  "  To  be  the  protector 
of  unhappy  women,  to  write  the  history  of  the  world,  to  write 
novels  as  great  as  Victor  Hugo's,  to  be  an  actress,  to  reform 
society,  to  uplift  the  degraded."  Given  such  adolescent 
yearnings  in  minds  of  great  natures,  of  true  geniuses,  they 
may,  indeed,  be  realized,  as  the  biographies  of  Joan  of  Arc, 
Savonarola,  Lafayette,  and  George  Eliot  bear  witness.  Given 
such  yearnings  in  mediocre  and  inferior,  but  persistent  minds, 
and  pathetic  failure  is  the  consequence.  High  school  and 
college  teachers  will  recognize  readily  enough  this  top-heavy 
combination  of  high  ambition  and  poor  ability. 

MENTAL  PATHOLOGY  OF  ADOLESCENCE.  —  Of  the 
various  disorders  which  may  accompany  the  development  of 
mental  life  during  adolescence,  attention  can  be  called  here 
only  to  the  more  prominent.  Of  actual  mental  deterioration, 
accompanied  by  brain  disease,  the  most  conspicuous  and 
important  disorder  is  the  very  puzzling  and  much-debated 
complex  of  symptoms  known  as  precocious  dementia,  dementia 
prcecox.  This  juvenile  dementia,  also  sometimes  known  as 
hebephrenia,  is  a  psychosis  which  tends  to  develop  at  the 
age  of  puberty.  The  beginning  is  insidious,  with  gradual 
weakening  of  attention,  sluggish  association  of  ideas,  and 
marked  indifference.  The  disorder  proceeds  by  slow,  but 
inevitable,  stages  to  a  general  and  profound  intellectual 
enfeeblement.1 

Developmental  Retardation.  —  Dementia  praecox  is  a 
breaking  down  of  mental  life,  a  form  of  insanity  —  at  least 
in  the  opinion  of  most  writers.  More  common  at  adolescence, 
however,  are  certain  forms  of  mental  disorder  which  are  due 
to  functional  disturbances  or  to  lack  of  complete  adaptation 
to  the  demands  of  mature  life.  The  concept  of  arrested  de- 
velopment as  applied  to  the  lowest  grades  of  intelligence  — 
the  idiot,  the  imbecile,  and  the  moron  —  is  familiar  to  all. 

1  For  further  details,  consult  textbooks  on  insanity,  e.g.  J.  R.  de  Fursac, 
Manual  of  Psychiatry  (trans,  by  A.  J.  Rosanoff),  New  York,  IQII,  Chap.  VIII. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       293 

What  is  less  well  known  is  the  existence  of  analogous  arrests, 
retardations,  or  deviations  from  normal  mental  development 
in  the  adolescent  period.  In  fact,  so  intricate  are  these 
phenomena  that  this  chapter  of  clinical  psychology  remains 
as  yet  largely  unwritten.  It  is  safe,  however,  to  assert  that 
the  reconstruction  of  attitudes  and  interests  that  constitutes, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  real  psychology  of  adolescence  may  ex- 
hibit all  degrees  of  incompleteness.  The  reconstruction  is 
at  bottom  a  reconstruction  of  feeling  rather  than  of  intellect, 
and  in  consequence  the  retardations  and  arrest  of  develop- 
ment attributable  to  the  period  make  themselves  evident 
more  often  in  an  inadequacy  of  adjustment  to  the  widening 
demands  of  life  or  in  an  unhealthy  attitude  toward  these 
demands  than  in  insufficiency  of  intelligence.  The  defects 
are  defects  of  will  and  of  feeling.  There  is  lack  of  normal 
social  adaptation.  Most  of  the  chronic  cases  of  neurasthenia 
and  psychasthenia  and  even  of  the  more  serious  mental  dis- 
ruptions of  hysteria  are  cases  of  arrested  or  retarded  mental 
development.  Intellectual  development  may  have  been  ad- 
equate, but  action  —  complete,  efficient,  and  socially  adapted 
action  —  has  not  been  attained.  The  clash  of  instinctive 
tendencies  has  not  resolved  into  harmonious  conduct.  The 
feelings  are  similarly  disjointed.  These  individuals,  whose 
final  attainment  of  mental  maturity  is  thus  frustrated,  are 
impressionable,  emotional,  unstable ;  they  may  be  timid 
or  domineering,  fawning  or  stubborn,  self-effacing  or  self- 
conscious,  egotistical,  finical,  often  with  tendencies  not  un- 
like those  that  usher  in  dementia  prascox  —  seclusive,  shy, 
dreamy,  brooding  over  failure,  given  to  sexual  or  other  ru- 
minating, self-deception,  and  superficial  moralizing.1  "  The 
neuroses,"  says  Pierre  Janet,  the  eminent  French  authority, 

1  See  Adolph  Meyer,  What  do  Histories  of  Cases  of  Insanity  teach  us  con- 
cerning Preventive  Mental  Hygiene  during  the  Years  of  School  Life?  Psych. 
Clinic,  2:  June  15,  iqoS,  89-101;  also  !•'.  B.  Huey,  Retardation  and  the 
Mental  Examination  of  Retarded  Children.  Jour,  of  Psycho-Asthcuics,  15: 
1910,  31-43. 


294  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

"  appear  almost  always  at  the  ages  in  which  the  organic  and 
mental  transformation  is  the  most  accentuated.  They  almost 
always  begin  at  puberty."  1 

Higher  Retardations  as  a  School  Problem.  —  The  problem 
set  for  our  school  system  by  the  existence  of  these  higher 
grades  of  mental  retardation  is  clear  enough  in  theory,  though 
as  yet  difficult  in  practice.  There  must  be  worked  out  some 
adequate  system  of  diagnostic  tests  whereby,  for  a  given  in- 
dividual, the  fact  of  such  retardation  may  be  definitely  es- 
tablished and  its  level  definitely  ascertained.  Such  a  system 
of  tests  must  be  worked  out  by  the  research  departments  of 
applied  psychology  in  universities,  public  school  systems,  and 
institutions  for  defectives.  Along  with  these  tests  must  be 
developed  the  clinical  histories  of  numerous  cases,  so  that 
we  may  in  time  know  the  early  danger  signals. 

Whether  by  prescription  of  some  regimen  of  mental  hygiene, 
by  more  careful  regulation  of  environmental  conditions,  or, 
perhaps,  by  recourse  to  the  therapeutic  measures  of  Freudian 
psychology,  we  may  overcome  these  adolescent  arrests  of 
development,  or  whether,  as  the  analogy  of  those  earlier 
arrests  of  childhood  would  suggest,  these  later  arrests  are 
Likewise  due  at  bottom  to  hereditary,  or  at  least  to  congenital, 
taint,  it  is  perhaps  too  soon  now  to  say.  It  ought  at  least 
to  be  possible  to  prescribe  a  mode  of  life  and  a  sphere  of 
activity  in  which  these  retarded  minds  may  work  happily 
and  with  all  the  efficiency  they  possess. 

Adolescent  Criminality.  —  Statistics  show  a  sudden  in- 
crease at  puberty  in  the  commission  of  crimes.  From  10  to 
13  years,  lying,  stealing,  and  vagabondage  are  the  typical 
youthful  offenses.  Crimes  against  persons  and  those  which 
combine  violent  passion  with  moral  obtuseness  make  their 
appearance  in  later  adolescence. 

Causes.  —  Criminologists  have  advanced  various  explana- 

1  See  his  Qu'est-cc  qu'une  nevrose.  Rev.  scienlifiqnc,  January  30,  1909,  129- 
138. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       295 

tions  for  adolescent  criminality,  some  of  which  are 
surely  far-fetched  and  hasty  generalizations ;  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  assertion  that  all  pubescent  girls  have  a  natural 
propensity  for  pyromania.  Other  types  of  monomania  are 
described  in  this  extremist  literature  and  assigned  to  various 
stages  of  mental  development.  The  causes  of  criminality 
are  both  individual  and  social,  i.e.  both  internal  and  external. 
It  is  certainly  possible  for  the  social  factors  to  work  alone ; 
contact  with  new  industrial  and  financial  problems,  weaken- 
ing of  parental  control  and  other  environmental  circumstances 
may  cause  an  adolescent  whose  mental  equipment  is  entirely 
normal  to  commit  crime.  However,  we  may  add  to  this 
that  normality  in  adolescence  does  include  a  transition  through 
a  yeasty  stage  of  physical  and  mental  upheaval  which  is 
sufficient  to  account  for  a  great  many  minor  trespasses. 
Lawlessness,  impulsive  misconduct,  the  sowing  of  the  pro- 
verbial "  wild  oats,"  and  even  passionate  outbreaks  may  ap- 
pear as  transient  phases  of  the  mental  and  moral  adjustment 
of  the  period,  so  that  moral  delinquency  in  adolescence  does 
not  necessarily  imply  confirmed  criminality.1 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  cases  of  criminality  which 
can  be  traced  to  individual  factors  which  are  really  abnormal. 
A  youth  who,  from  adolescent  arrest,  has  failed  to  make  ade- 
quate social  adaptation,  has  doubtless  within  him  a  predis- 
position toward  non-social  acts  which  needs  only  the  stimulus 

1  If  the  "  gentle  reader"  has  himself  never  strayed  from  the  path  of  legal 
rectitude,  let  him  read  Swift's  account  (Some  Criminal  Tendencies  of  Boyhood; 
a  Study  in  Adolescence,  Fed.  Sem.,  8  :  1901,  65-91),  wherein  several  dozen  college 
professors,  normal  school  teachers,  lawyers,  ministers,  dentists,  merchants,  and 
other  respectable  citizens  confess  to  adventures,  truancy,  fighting,  robbing 
orchards,  stealing  watermelons,  old  iron,  and  money,  breaking  car  windows, 
lying  and  other  offenses  of  their  juvenile  and  adolescent  days.  Swift  goes  so 
far  as  to  conclude,  I  think  rather  rashly,  that  "there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt 
that  there  is  a  time  in  the  life  of  every  normal  boy  when  primitive  impulses,  the 
reverberation  of  savage  life,  carry  him  on,  with  almost  resistless  fury,  toward  a 
life  ot  crime.  When  to  these  native  impulses  there  is  joined  an  environment 
favorable  to  crime,  there  can  be  little  hope  for  successful  resistance." 


296  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  circumstances  to  show  itself  in  criminality.  Moreover, 
it  is  not  unreasonable  to  believe  that  the  increased  complexity 
of  modern  civilization  makes  social  adaptation  more  difficult, 
so  that  this,  taken  in  conjunction  with  a  less  strict  family 
life,  less  strenuous  emphasis  upon  moral  training,  earlier 
personal  liberty,  the  greater  predominance  of  urban  life,  the 
prominence  given  to  crime  in  the  newspaper,  and  the  apparent 
weakening  of  the  religious  sentiment,  may  account  for  what 
is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  an  increasing  precocity  in 
crime  and  an  increasing  proportion  of  youthful  criminals. 

Remedies.  —  The  remedies  must  doubtless  be  sufficiently 
varied  to  counteract  these  varied  factors  —  partly  social? 
industrial,  and  economic,  partly  individual,  moral,  and  educa- 
tional. Particularly  in  the  case  of  adolescent  criminality 
should  the  attempt  be  made  to  reform  the  offender  himself.1 

That  systematic  and  persistent  efforts  at  moral  and  re- 
ligious training  do  have  a  direct  and  measurable  effect  in 
reducing  criminal  tendencies  seems  to  have  been  established 
by  an  important  investigation,  as  yet  unpublished,  carried 
on  at  the  University  of  Illinois  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
W.  C.  Bagley,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  an  account  of  the 
conclusions.  From  this  study  it  appears  that  those  religious 
bodies  that  lay  most  stress  on  the  moral  training  of  their 
members  are  represented  by  the  fewest  number,  relatively, 
of  convictions  for  crime. 

Of  special  interest  in  this  connection  are  the  ten  principles 
of  the  "  Credo  "  of  Mr.  George,  whose  long  personal  experi- 
ence with  the  boys  and  girls  of  criminal  tendencies  in  the 
Junior  Republic  entitles  him  to  speak  with  authority.  These 
principles  may  be  paraphrased  from  Mr.  George's  words2  as 
follows:  (i)  Normal,  healthy  boys  arc  pretty  much  alike, 

1  For  a  good  discussion  of  this  problem,  consult  G.  L.  Duprat,  La  Crimina- 
lilc  dans  I' Adolescence.     Paris,  igoo. 

2  W.  R.  George,  The.  Junior  Republic:   its  History  and  Ideals.     New  York, 
1910.     See  especially  the  last  chapter. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       297 

the  world  over,  regardless  of  class  or  social  condition. 
(2)  Hero  worship,  dare-deviltry,  love  of  praise,  curiosity, 
comradeship,  and  lawlessness  are  fundamental  components 
of  boy  nature.  (3)  Superabundant  physical  energy  is  bound 
to  find  an  outlet  somehow.  (4)  These  mental  and  physical 
traits,  coupled  with  the  care-free  condition  of  youth,  make 
more  or  less  inevitable  a  "  vigorous  crop  of  wild  oats  dur- 
ing the  'teens.'"  (5)  This  "transit  of  fool's  hill"  is  ter- 
minated, for  the  average  boy,  only  when  he  comes  to  feel 
responsibility  for  himself  or  for  others,  when,  in  other  words, 
he  becomes  "  a  World's  Worker."  (6)  There  are  two  sorts 
of  these  workers,  those  who  do  right  for  right's  sake,  and 
those  who  do  right  for  policy's  sake.  (7)  Opposed  to  the 
workers  are  the  lawless,  who  are  youths  still  in  their  teens,  or 
maturer  individuals  who  have  not  yet  felt  the  saving  shock  of 
responsibility.  (8)  The  workers  come  to  forget  their  own 
wild  oats  and  are  too  apt  to  have  no  sympathy  for  misde- 
meanors of  the  lawless ;  so  they  demand  a  System  for  their 
reformation.  (9)  The  System,  which  in  the  concrete  is  known 
as  Prison,  Reformatory,  etc.,  is  unnatural  and  un-American, 
and  it  fails  of  its  purpose  because  it  neglects  the  individual 
for  whom  it  was  devised.  (10)  The  only  remedy  for  this 
failure  is  the  organization  of  such  a  community  or  village 
as  the  Junior  Republic,  wherein  is  incorporated  the  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  the  essential  lesson  of  responsibility. 

INTELLECTUAL  GROWTH  IN  ADOLESCENCE.  —  Our 
study  of  the  mental  traits  of  adolescence  has  been  confined 
thus  far  very  largely  to  the  sphere  of  instinct  and  feeling. 
The  intellectual  development  of  the  period  and  its  relations 
to  high  school  teaching  now  merit  brief  consideration.  Many 
careful  observers  believe  that  there  is  a  period  of  a  year  or 
so  just  at  puberty  when  children,  especially  girls,  show  a  sur- 
prising and  irritating  stupidity.  If  this  observation  be  cor- 
rect, it  would  seem  to  be  connected  in  some  way  with  the 
physical  alterations  of  the  period,  as  if  brain  growth  stagnated 


298  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

while  the  body  was  undergoing  transformation  for  the  func- 
tion of  maturer  years. 

In  the  main,  however,  adolescence  is  characterized  by  the 
attainment  of  the  final  stages  of  efficiency  in  different  mental 
capacities ;  memory  span,  for  example,  reaches  its  maximum 
at  1 6  or  17.  Again,  the  development  during  this  period  of 
numerous  collateral  neurones  in  the  central  nervous  system 
agrees  with  the  evident  increase  of  capacity  for  complexly 
organized  association  systems,  so  that  the  adolescent  can 
deal  with  more  elaborate  and  difficult  concepts  than  the 
child.  As  his  critical  ability  and  capacity  for  independent 
thinking  increases,  there  is  a  modicum  of  truth  in  the  common 
notion  that  "reason"  is  an  adolescent,  rather  than  a  juvenile 
"  faculty." 

To  attempt  to  organize  high  school  work  upon  the  basis  of 
a  psychology  of  adolescence  alone  seems,  however,  to  be  an 
impossible  undertaking,  because  the  selection  of  subject 
matter  and  of  methods  and  pace  of  instruction  is  largely 
governed  by  other  factors,  not  the  least  of  which  is  the  domi- 
nating influence  of  college  entrance  requirements  and  the 
general  acceptance  by  secondary  school  authorities  of  the 
idea  that  all  students  should  follow  the  same  methods  and 
pace  within  any  given  subject  as  are  followed  by  other  pupils 
who  are  taking  the  subject  in  preparation  for  college.  We 
may  state  here,  however,  a  number  of  principles  which  seem 
to  be  justified  by  psychological  and  pedagogical  research. 

The  Problem  of  Formal  Discipline.  —  In  the  discussion 
of  the  organization  of  high  school  work  (p.  222)  it  has  been 
urged  that  no  subject  deserves  to  be  retained  in  the  curriculum 
whose  sole  or  whose  primary  sanction  is  the  mental  discipline 
it  affords.  It  remains  to  set  forth  more  clearly  the  grounds 
for  this  principle. 

In  the  elementary  school  the  issue  of  formal  discipline  .is 
scarcely  raised  at  all :  some  subjects  are  studied  for  their 
direct  value  as  sources  of  information ;  other  subjects,  like 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       299 

reading  and  writing,  though  sometimes  referred  to  as  "formal" 
studies,  are  pursued  for  their  intrinsic  usefulness  and  not 
for  their  formal  discipline  in  the  sense  of  indirect  mental  train- 
ing. In  the  high  school,  on  the  contrary,  nearly  all  subjects 
in  the  curriculum  are  espoused  or  defended  not  only  for  their 
direct,  but  also  for  their  indirect,  formal  value;  indeed,  the 
disciplinary  worth  may  be  put  foremost  in  the  argument  for 
their  inclusion  in  the  curriculum.  Thus,  the  study  of  high 
school  mathematics,  though  urged  in  some  degree  for  its  in- 
trinsic value  as  information,  e.g.  usefulness  in  professional, 
industrial,  and  like  activities,  is  often  still  more  emphatically 
urged  as  a  means  for  training  concentration  of  attention, 
accuracy,  and  power  to  reason.  Similarly,  whole  courses  of 
study  have  been  prescribed  with  the  idea  that  in  that  way 
alone  could  a  predetermined  type  of  mental  training  be  se- 
cured (all  pupils  should  take  botany  for  training  their  powers 
of  observation,  etc.). 

It  is  profitable,  then,  to  examine  with  care  the  arguments 
advanced  for  and  against  this  doctrine.  The  issue  necessi- 
tates, first  of  all,  the  drawing  of  a  distinction  between  content 
and  form,  between  information  and  training  in  the  narrower 
sense.  A  knowledge  of  Latin  undoubtedly  facilitates  the 
learning  of  French,  but  in  what  way?  In  part,  obviously, 
because  French  is  a  Romance  tongue  and  contains  many 
features  that  closely  resemble  analogous  features  in  the  Latin. 
The  French  vocabulary  comprises  numerous  terms  whose 
roots  are  derived  from  the  Latin  vocabulary.  In  so  far  as 
this  is  the  source  of  the  assistance  given  by  the  study  of  Latin 
to  the  study  of  French,  evidently  what  is  carried  over  from 
the  one  study  to  the  other  is  information,  not  formal  training. 
We  may  speak  in  this  case  of  a  "  spread  "  or  "  transfer  "  of 
efficiency  or  ability  from  one  subject  to  the  other,  but  not  in 
the  sense  of  formal  discipline. 

Assume,  however,  that  the  study  of  Latin  facilitates  the 
learning  of  German  or  architectural  designing  or  intensive 


300          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

farming.  In  these  cases  there  can  be  relatively  little  direct 
carrying  over  of  information  as  such.  The  profit  for  these 
several  lines  of  activity  must  be  in  another  sphere,  and  it 
may,  in  theory,  be  of  two  kinds,  specific  or  general.  The 
mental  training  developed  by  Latin  may  include  certain 
methods  or  ways  of  going  to  work  in  the  handling  of  linguistic 
material,  in  which  case  there  has  been  gained  a  specific  dis- 
cipline that  will  be  serviceable  in  the  learning  of  the  German 
or  of  any  other  language.  Or,  the  mental  training  in  Latin 
may  include  certain  methods  or  ways  of  undertaking  any 
sort  of  mental  work,  e.g.  training  in  concentration  of  atten- 
tion, in  assiduity,  in  patience,  in  analyzing  complex  situations, 
in  synthesizing  isolated  items  into  a  meaningful  and  ordered 
whole.  These  latter  capacities  are  evidently  instances  of 
general  discipline,  since  they  are  of  an  order  that  can  function 
in  various  and  varied  situations,  whether  linguistic  or  non- 
linguistic. 

The  work  of  high  school  pupils  in  a  given  field  may,  there- 
fore, result,  in  theory,  (a)  in  the  acquisition  of  information 
which  will  be  of  direct  service  in  related  fields,  (6)  in  specific 
mental  training  that  will  be  of  service  in  fields  of  a  like  kind, 
or  (c)  in  general  mental  training  which  will  be  of  service  in 
many  and  widely  divergent  fields.  It  is  with  these  last  two 
types  of  spread  or  transfer  of  the  effects  of  special  drill  that 
we  are  concerned  in  the  problem  of  formal  discipline. 

The  Older  View.  —  The  older  view  of  formal  discipline 
assumed  without  much  question  the  existence  of  a  general 
spread  of  mental  training.  This  view  still  remains  the  "  com- 
mon-sense "  view  of  the  "  man-in-the-street."  It  had  its 
support  largely  in  the  commonly  accepted  "  faculty  "  psy- 
chology, according  to  which  the  mind  is  composed  of  a  number 
of  faculties  —  imagination,  memory,  reasoning,  observation, 
and  the  like  —  and  according  to  which  the  carrying  on  of 
any  specific  bit  of  imagining,  remembering,  reasoning,  or  ob- 
serving entailed  the  exercise  as  a  whole  of  the  faculty  con- 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       301 

cerncd.  Any  bit  of  reasoning,  then,  would  strengthen  the 
faculty  of  reasoning.  A  second  common  argument  for  formal 
discipline  rests  on  the  analogy  of  physical  training  and  exer- 
cise. A  man,  who  by  appropriate  exercises  with  a  weight 
machine  in  the  gymnasium  adds  a  half  inch  to  the  girth  of 
his  biceps,  thereby  stores  up  added  power  which  he  can  turn 
to  use  later  in  chopping  down  a  tree  or  rowing  a  boat.  A 
third  argument  for  this  view  calls  attention  to  the  relation  of 
general  ability  in  the  population  at  large  to  educational  train- 
ing. For  example,  college  graduates  are  shown  by  statistics 
to  be  greatly  superior  to  non-college  graduates  in  making  a 
success  in  life ;  hence,  their  success  is  due  to  the  superior 
training. 

Arguments  against  It.  —  These  three  chief  lines  of  argument 
are  refuted  by  some  such  arguments  as  the  following.  Modern 
psychology  denies  the  existence  of  the  old-fashioned  mental 
faculties  and  substitutes  for  them  the  notion  of  numerous 
very  specialized  mental  functions.  There  is  not  one  faculty 
of  memory,  but  visual  memory,  auditory  memory,  memory 
for  faces,  memory  for  poetry,  etc.1  The  argument  from 
physical  training,  like  all  arguments  from  analogy,  is  weak. 
The  biceps  is,  after  all,  the  same  biceps,  whether  contracted 
for  rowing  or  wood  chopping,  whereas  mind  is  not  so  simple 
as  muscle,  as  has  just  been  pointed  out.  Finally,  the  argu- 
ment based  upon  the  generally  superior  performance  of  per- 
sons subjected  to  prolonged  mental  training  may  be  met  by 
the  assertion  that  this  inference  is  a  post  hoc  profiler  hoc  fallacy, 
that  in  truth  those  who  pursue  the  higher  education  are  a 
group  selected  by  their  very  inclination  and  ability  to  master 
complex  issues  and  employ  their  minds  with  larger  and  more 
difficult  problems,  that,  moreover,  they  owe  their  success  in 
part  to  the  prestige  and  distinction  attendant  upon  their 

1  Sec,  in  illustration,  G.  M.  Whipplc.  The  Effect  of  Practice  upon  the  Range  of 
Visual  Attention  and  of  Visual  Apprehension.  Jour,  of  Ediic.  Psvcli.,  i  :  1910, 
249-262,  especially  pp.  258-259. 


SANTA  BAH'uAtiA  C.L'I  E  LIBRA 


302  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

college  career,  and  in  yet  greater  part  to  the  acquisition  of 
highly  specialized  information  along  certain  professional  lines. 
It  might  even  be  argued,  if  one  wished  to  force  the  retort, 
that  college-trained  men  succeed  in  spite  of  their  training. 
Or,  again,  it  can  be  urged  that  even  those  who  have  mastered 
extensive  cultural  training  often  exhibit  only  a  limited  or 
one-sided  efficiency :  they  may  be  good  in  music  and  poor  in 
linguistics,  skilled  in  oratory  and  poor  in  mathematics,  etc. 

Experimental  Studies  of  Transfer.  —  So  much  for  arguments. 
The  issue  of  formal  discipline,  however,  has  been  subjected 
to  elaborate  experimental  study  during  the  past  decade.  It 
is  the  outcome  of  these  experiments,1  in  fact,  that  has  in- 
fluenced many  to  entertain  a  general  distrust  of  the  doctrine, 
if  not  to  deny  flatly  the  existence  of  any  transfer  of  mental 
training.  Some  of  these  experiments  have  concerned  what  is 
known  as  bilateral  transfer,  i.e.  the  effect  of  special  exercise 
of  a  sense  organ  or  of  a  particular  movement  on  one  side  of 
the  body  upon  the  capacity  of  a  corresponding  organ  or 
movement  upon  the  other  side.  But  the  greater  part  of  the 
experiments  have  concerned  the  transference  of  practice-effects 
from  one  form  of  mental  activity  to  another.  In  the  typical 
experiment  a  preliminary  trial  is  made  to  determine  the  ability 
of  a  group  of  subjects  in  a  given  direction,  e.g.  learning  num- 
bers, letters,  Italian  words,  etc.  This  group  is  then  drilled 
at  length  in  some  other  activity,  e.g.  learning  nonsense  sylla- 
bles, and  is  finally  given  a  second  trial  with  the  original,  or 
test  material.  Other  persons  are  given  the  two  tests  with  the 
original  material,  but  are  not  given  the  intermediate  drill. 
If  the  drilled  individuals  show  much  greater  final  improvement 
in  the  tested  activity  than  do  the  "  control  "  or  undrilled 
individuals,  then  it  is  argued  that  the  drill  work  did  develop 

1  See  for  a  summary  of  the  experimental  work,  article  on  formal  discipline, 
Cyclop,  of  Ediic.,  Vol.  2,  p.  642  ;  S.  S.  Colvin,  Some  Facts  in  Partial  Justification 
of  the  So-called  Dogma  of  Formal  Discipline,  l'u:i<.  of  Illinois  Bulletin,  Vol.  7, 
No.  26,  2(1  revised  edition,  February,  TQIO;  \\.  II.  Heck,  Mental  Discipline 
and  Educational  Values,  2(1  ed..  ign.  especially  Chap.  3. 


Psychology  and  I [ygienc  of  Adolescence       303 

some  kind  of  capacity  that  facilitated  the  test  work ;    that 
there  was,  in  other  words,  some  kind  of  transfer  of  capacity. 

The  results  of  the  earlier  experiments,  e.g.  the  well-known 
work  of  James  '  and  the  Columbia  experiments,2  have  been 
generally  interpreted  as  conclusive  evidence  against  formal 
mental  training.  But  these  results  have  been  subjected  to 
much  criticism  since  their  publication,  while  the  trend  of 
later  experimental  work  has  been  much  less  decidedly  against 
sweeping  denial  of  transfer-effects.  On  the  contrary,  it 
would  be  safer  to  assert  that  in  practically  all  carefully  planned 
experiments,  notably  in  the  extensive  experiments  of  Ebcrt 
and  Meumann  upon  memorizing,  an  amount  of  transfer 
is  indicated  sufficient  to  receive  serious  consideration.  It  is 
true  that  the  opponents  of  formal  discipline  have  criticized 
with  some  severity  much  of  the  experimental  work  that  has 
seemed  favorable  to  transfer.  It  would  seem  safe,  however, 
to  state  that  the  net  result  of  the  experimental  work  has 
been  to  discredit  any  extreme  view.  Formal  discipline  can- 
not be  flatly  denied,  neither  can  it  be  regarded  as  invariably 
and  necessarily  existent.  In  some  ways,  too,  the  experimental 
work,  because  it  has  been  for  the  most  part  restricted  to 
laboratory  tests  with  adults,  has  left  untouched  the  essential 
educational  problem  :  precisely  of  what  nature  and  of  what 
magnitude  is  the  transfer  of  mental  training  under  actual 
conditions  of  school  instruction?  It  cannot  be  said  that 
psychology  has  at  present  any  satisfactory  ans\ver  to  this 
problem.  It  remains  a  matter  for  future  investigation, 
particularly  so  when  we  inquire  concerning  general  rather 
than  specific  discipline. 

To  quote  from  Colvin  (p.  17)  :  "Whether  the  results  are  due 
to  transfer  of  identical  elements  (Thorndike)  ;  to  improve- 

1  Psychology,  Vol.  i,  p.  667. 

2  E.  L.  Thorndike  and  R.  S.  \Yoodworth,  The  Influence  of  Improvement  in 
One  Mental  Function  upon  the  Efficiency  of  Other  Functions.     Psych.  Review, 
&:  looi,  2.|7-2(n,  348-31)5,  553-564. 


304          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ment  of  habitual  methods  of  recording  facts  (James) ;  to 
training  the  attention  and  will-power  (Scripture  and  Davis) ; 
to  divesting  the  essential  process  of  the  unessential  factors, 
greater  habituation  and  more  economical  adaptation  of  atten- 
tion (Coover  and  Angell) ;  to  the  effective  use  of  mental 
imagery  and  properly  controlled  attention  (Franker) ;  to  the 
development  of  ideals  (Bagley  and  Ruediger) ;  to  general 
improvement  in  technique  of  learning,  attention  and  will- 
power, but  chiefly  to  a  sympathetic  interaction  of  allied 
memory  functions  (Ebert  and  Meumann),  or  to  some  other 
factors  as  yet  not  analyzed  out,  may  still  be  a  matter  of 
investigation  and  debate.  My  own  personal  opinion  is  that 
practically  all  of  these  are  more  or  less  important  elements  in 
the  transfer." 

Conclusions  based  upon  Adults  may  not  apply  to  Children.  - 
There  remain  to  be  mentioned  two  or  three  features  of  this 
problem  which,  in  the  writer's  judgment,  are  apt  to  be  lost 
sight  of  in  the  discussion.  One  is  that  conclusions  reached 
with  adults,  especially  with  adults  already  trained  in  mental 
activity,  may  not  apply  to  untrained  adults  and  still  less  to 
children,  whose  mental  habits  are  not  yet  matured.  Ex- 
perimental work  performed  upon  school  children  at  Ithaca, 
and  soon  to  be  published,1  has  shown  an  apparent  gain  in 
general  mental  efficiency  on  the  part  of  school  children  sub- 
jected to  special  formal  drill  in  visual  apprehension  that  is 
quite  in  contrast  to  the  absence  of  such  general  effects  on  the 
part  of  adults  tested  in  the  laboratory. 

Negative  Transfer.  —  Another  feature  which  has  been 
clearly  brought  out  in  experiments  is  that  the  mental  "  set  " 
or  "  attitude  "  developed  by  a  particular  form  of  drill  work 
may  hinder  rather  than  facilitate  the  performance  of  certain 
other  mental  activities.  There  may  result,  for  example, 
what  is  known  as  "  interference  "  of  associations,  or  "  negative 
transfer."  Thus,  drill  in  precise  expressive  reading  may 
conceivably  be  carried  far  enough  to  operate  against  the  ac- 

1  K.  M.  Dallenbach,  Jour,  of  Ldiic.  Psych.     June  and  September,  1914. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       305 

quisition  of  high  speed  "  skimming  "  in  reading,  so  desirable 
for  many  phases  of  adult  work.  Again,  if  high  school  geom- 
etry does  train  the  pupil  to  reason  correctly,  it  is  possible  that 
it  unfits  him  to  carry  on  reasoning  about  the  complex  matters 
of  daily  life  in  which  contingency,  qualification,  and  neces- 
sity of  appraisement  of  conditions  replace  the  cut-and-dried, 
right-or-wrong  type  of  reasoning  of  the  geometrical  theorem. 
The  Teacher  as  a  Factor.  —  Finally,  another  feature,  too 
often  lost  sight  of,  is  that  the  disciplinary  values  that  do  exist 
actually  inhere  less  in  the  subject  matter  itself  than  in  the 
method  by  which  it  is  presented,  so  that  the  skill  and  insight 
of  the  teacher  are  perhaps  more  important  than  the  subject 
matter  taught.  High  school  mathematics,  for  instance,  may 
be  so  taught  as  to  emphasize  memoriter  activities,  or  pro- 
cesses of  proof,  or  yet  other  phases,  such  as  the  "  feel  "  for 
geometrical  relations.  Similarly,  a  desirable  mental  attitude 
of  cautiousness  in  drawing  conclusions  from  scanty  data 
might  be  developed  by  one  teacher  in  biology  and  by  another 
in  the  study  of  Latin.  Let  the  reader  attempt  to  appraise 
his  own  possessions  of  this  sort,  and  then  let  him  try  to  de- 
cide just  when  and  in  what  subject  he  secured  the  drill  that 
made  him  diligent,  neat,  punctual,  keenly  observant,  rational 
in  argumentation,  capable  of  intellectual  concentration,  quick 
to  grasp  the  merits  of  an  issue,  prone  to  see  both  sides  of  every 
question,  assiduous  in  following  all  problems  to  their  con- 
clusion, fertile  in  imagination,  resourceful  in  an  emergency, 
and  so  on  to  the  end  of  his  virtues.  He  will  find  it  difficult 
or  impossible,  so  automatic  and  ingrained  are  these  attitudes 
and  tendencies  in  adults,  to  analyze  them  into  clearly  con- 
scious mental  habits  or  ideals,  or  to  say  with  any  certainty 
when  or  how  they  were  acquired  in  the  course  of  his  school 
training,  or  whether,  indeed,  they  may  not  have  developed 
as  simple  functions  of  maturity.  Yet  these  are  the  things 
that  are  set  forth  as  the  definite  and  positive  results  of  study- 
ing this  or  that  high  school  subject. 


306  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

In  conclusion,  then,  the  best  rule  that  can  be  laid  down  is : 
no  subject  should  be  introduced  into  the  curriculum  for  the 
sake  of  its  formal  training  alone,  but  every  subject  should  be 
so  taught  as  to  secure  from  it  all  possible  drill  in  correct 
methods  of  thinking  and  worthy  ideals  of  mental  action.1 

Alleged  Inadequacies  of  High  School  Science.  --  The  choice 
of  material  and  type  of  presentation  in  high-school  science 
does  not  accord  well  with  the  natural  inclinations  and  in- 
terests of  adolescents.  There  is  over-insistence  upon  technical 
nomenclature.  There  is  over-insistence  upon  quantitative 
and  mathematical  treatment,  especially  in  physics  and  chem- 
istry. In  biology,  morphology,  analysis,  and  the  study  of 
structure  is  stressed  too  much  to  the  neglect  of  the  dynamic 
and  the  functional.  Such,  at  least,  are  the  conclusions  of 
Stanley  Hall,2  who  believes  that  these  tendencies  devitalize 
and  dehumanize  science,  and  who  would  substitute  a  genetic 
order  of  approach  with  four  main  stages:  ist,  acquaintance 
with  simple,  primitive,  mythical  men  and  poetic  interpreta- 
tions of  nature ;  2d,  popular  science,  like  the  material  pub- 
lished in  the  Scientific  American  or  Popular  Mechanics  — 
box-kites,  photography,  moving  pictures,  wireless  telegraphy, 
etc. ;  3d,  applied  science  and  the  utilitarian  aspects  seen  in 
various  branches  of  technology,  economic  geology  and  botany, 
mechanical  and  electrical  engineering ;  4th,  pure  science,  or 
science  for  science's  sake,  to  be  pursued  last  of  all  and  to  be 
relegated  for  the  most  part  to  the  college  and  university. 
Recent  tendencies  in  high  school  science  have  in  some  measure 
incorporated  these  recommendations,  though  it  has  seemed 
impossible  to  adopt  them  fully,  even  were  it  agreed  that  in- 
struction should  always  follow  that  order  of  presentation 

1  For  further  discussion  of  the  subject,  consult,  in  addition  to  the  references 
cited,  the  symposium  on  formal  discipline  by  Angell,  Pillsbury,  and  Judd,  Ednc. 
Rev.,  June,  iqoS  ;  the  second  symposium  by  Delabarrc,  Henderson,  and  Home, 
Education,  May,  IQOQ;  \V.  C.  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  Chap.  13. 

2  Adolescent  Feelings  to\vard  Nature   and   a   New   Education   in   Science, 
Adolescence,  II,  Chap.  12. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       307 

suggested  by  genetic  psychology.  Does  our  science  teaching, 
one  may  ask,  really  "  arrest  and  mutilate  the  soul  of  adoles- 
cence by  prematurely  forcing  it  into  the  mental  mold  of 
grown-ups  "  ? 

Linguistic  Interests.  -  The  common  practice  of  beginning 
a  foreign  language  in  the  first  high  school  or  last  grammar 
school  year  receives  endorsement  from  studies  which  indicate 
at  puberty  a  new  interest  in  linguistic  expression,  a  desire 
to  augment  one's  vocabulary.1  Since  this  interest  is  an  in- 
terest in  the  use  of  words  in  actual  expression,  it  would  seem 
that  a  spoken  language,  like  French  or  German,  would  be  a 
more  natural  thing  to  study  at  this  time  than  a  written 
language  like  Latin.  On  the  other  hand,  the  question  may 
fairly  be  raised  as  to  why  any  one  of  these  languages  should 
be  taken  up  by  secondary  school  students,  at  least  by  those 
who  are  not  to  continue  them  in  college.  While  this  is  not 
the  place  to  discuss  educational  values  of  the  high  school 
branches,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  few  high  school  grad- 
uates gain  much  acquaintance  through  their  linguistic  work 
with  the  literature,  history,  or  civilization  represented  by  the 
foreign  tongue,  that  practically  none  of  them  cares  to,  or 
can,  either  read  or  speak  Latin,  French,  or  German  after 
graduation,  that  the  increase  in  familiarity  with  English 
etymology  and  English  grammar  gained  through  foreign 
language  study  is  not  noteworthy  in  comparison  with  the 
time  that  is  devoted  to  it,  and  that  the  improvement  of  Eng- 
lish style  and  diction  by  exercises  of  translation  is  secured 
only  when  very  competent  teachers  make  persistent  efforts 
in  that  direction. 

Literary  Interests.  —  Most  adolescents  have  at  some  time 
during  their  secondary  school  days  what  they  term  a  "  craze 
lor  reading."  Since  sensational  and  trashy  books  are  often 

1  It  has  even  been  argued  that  the  use  of  slang  by  girls  in  early  adolescence  is 
a  phase  of  this  desire;  see  Lillie  Williams,  Interest  of  Children  in  Words,  Ptd. 
Scm.,  9  :  1902,  274. 


308  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

read  for  want  of  a  proper  notion  of  what  is  worth  while,  parents 
and  teachers  should  utilize  this  opportunity  to  cultivate 
literary  taste  and  protect  boys  and  girls  from  what  are  really 
vicious  forms  of  the  "  reading  habit."  Lancaster  took  a  census 
of  the  type  of  reading  preferred  by  adolescents  and  found  the 
preferences  to  be  in  the  order:  novels,  812  votes,  poetry  797 
(which  is  perhaps  unexpectedly  and  suggestively  high),  es- 
says 67,  history  37,  travel  30. 

Art  Interests.  — As  has  already  been  pointed  out  (p.  262), 
interest  in  art  —  music,  drama,  architecture,  painting,  etc.  - 
is  decidedly  augmented  during  adolescence.  In  some,  prob- 
ably in  most,  the  interest  is  but  transient ;  but  in  the  truly 
gifted,  notable  progress  is  made  during  adolescence  both  in- 
tellectually, in  the  understanding  of  art  and  development  of 
taste,  and  emotionally,  in  a  richer  feeling  for  the  esthetic. 
The  school  cannot  afford  to  neglect  this  phase  of  cultural 
training.  Even  in  intentionally  utilitarian  types  of  secondary 
school,  e.g.  high  schools  of  agriculture,  those  who  plan  the 
curriculum  should  remember  that  bread-and-butter  winning 
is  but  a  part  of  life.  Psychologists  have  shown  how  the  play 
of  children  is  normally  replaced  in  later  years  by  some  form  of 
artistic  activity,  be  it  music,  painting,  some  form  of  decora- 
tive or  plastic  art,  or  other  recreative  handicraft  in  which  the 
esthetic  instinct  may  find  expression. 

COEDUCATION.  —  A  final  word  may  be  said  on  the  bear- 
ing of  the  physical  and  mental  features  of  adolescent  develop- 
ment upon  the  problem  of  coeducation.  It  should  be  made 
clear  at  the  outset  that  coeducation  does  not  necessarily  mean 
co-instruction.  One  may  be  convinced  from  sociological  and 
economic  considerations  that  youths  and  maidens  should 
study  the  same  subjects,  but  conclude  from  physiological 
and  psychological  reasons  that  they  should  study  them  in 
separate  classes  or  in  separate  schools.  In  cities  where  more 
than  one  high  school  is  imperative  there  has  often  been  found 
an  advantage  in  making  the  separation  by  sex  rather  than  on 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence       309 

geographical  or  other  bases.  In  other  schools  it  has  been 
found  worth  while  to  adopt  a  system  of  partial  segregation. 
A  typical  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  practice  at  the  Engle- 
wood  High  School,1  where  boys  and  girls  have  recited  in 
separate  classes  and  the  work  has  been  adapted  to  the 
interests  and  needs  of  the  two  sexes.  It  is  stated  that 
four  years'  trial  has  resulted  in  a  striking  increase  in  attend- 
ance, and  in  a  marked  improvement  of  scholarship,  especially 
of  the  boys.  Moreover,  a  majority  of  the  pupils  —  60  to 
96  per  cent  of  the  girls  and  87  to  100  per  cent  of  the  boys 
in  various  classes  —  have  declared  themselves  in  favor  of  the 
plan. 

The  chief  arguments  for  a  different  curriculum  for  the  two 
sexes  are  sociological  and  relate  to  what  is  felt  to  be  the  funda- 
mental difference  between  the  prospective  future  lines  of 
activity  of  boys  and  of  girls.  Particularly,  it  is  urged  that 
the  majority  of  girls  are  destined  to  careers  in  which  the  home 
will  be  the  center  of  interest  and  that  their  high  school  train- 
ing should,  accordingly,  be  directed  mainly  toward  this  end. 
Coeducation  renders  it  impossible  properly  to  differentiate 
the  school  work  in  this  way.  Counter  arguments  assert  that 
modern  conditions  indicate,  on  the  contrary,  the  necessity 
for  identical  training  of  the  sexes,  that  thousands  of  girls 
enter  upon  occupations  for  which  they  need  the  same  training 
as  boys,  and  that,  even  if  the  majority  are  destined  ultimately 
to  domestic  activities,  they  need,  as  wives  and  mothers,  the 
same  cultural  training  and  the  same  general  background  of 
information  as  their  husbands  and  children. 

Into  the  merits  of  these  several  arguments  this  is  not  the 
place  to  go.2  If  we  turn  to  the  arguments  from  psychology 
and  physiology,  they  are  found  to  reduce  in  the  main  to  two : 
first,  that  men  and  women  are  physically  and  mentally  funda- 


310  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

mentally  different 1  —  so  different  that  they  need  different 
mental  and  physical  training,  so  different  that  no  amount  of 
identical  training  can  equate  them.2  Second,  that  adolescent 
girls  are  handicapped  by  their  physical  constitution,  so  that 
it  is  a  crime  to  attempt  to  put  them  through  the  course  of 
training  that  is  suited  to  adolescent  boys.3  It  is  no  longer 
contended  that  girls  are  incapable  of  doing  as  much  or  as 
good  work  as  boys  —  experience  has  proved  the  contrary  - 
rather  that  they  compete  with  boys  at  the  expense  of  their 
health. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  are  the  chief  problems  and  the  chief  factors  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  will,  especially  in  adolescence  ? 

2.  What  is  the  relation   of  vocation  and   the  vocational  motive  to 
character  ? 

3.  Does  high  school  training  lead  away  from  manual  work  ? 

4.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  esthetic  to  the  moral  ? 

5.  What  are  the  moral  effects  of  various  studies  ? 

6.  What  educative  effect  does  student  self-government  or  the  "honor 
system"  have  ? 

7.  What  are  the  educative  and  the  moral  values  and  problems  of 
social  life — -clubs,  societies,  fraternities,  dancing,  etc.  ? 

1  For  an  inventory  of  these  differences,  see  G.  T.W.  Patrick,  The  Psychology 
of  Woman.     Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  47  :  1895,  209. 

2  This  contention  seems  somewhat  at  variance  with  another  frequently  heard 
argument  against  coeducation,  viz. :    that  it  does  not  permit  the  two  sexes  to 
develop  adequately  those  qualities  which  are  natural  to  them;    that  it  tends  to 
make  girls  too  masculine  and  to  effeminate  boys.     On  the  other  hand  it  is  urged 
in  reply  that  coeducation  exerts  a  desirable  disillusionizing  influence  and  tends 
to  make  the  relations  between  the  sexes  more  wholesome,  that  there  is  really  no 
more  reason  for  separating  the  sexes  in  the  classroom  than  in  the  drawing- 
room. 

3  As  the  phrase  goes,  we  "spoil  a  good  mother  to  make  a  poor  grammarian." 
This,  which  might  be  termed  the  medical  argument,  is  found  in  a  host  of  articles. 
For  references  and  further  discussion  see  Hall,  Adolescence,  also  his    Youth. 
One  of  the  earliest  and  most  discussed  books  on  this  theme  is  E.  H.  Clarke's 
Sex  in  Education,  or  a  I- air  Chance  for  Girls  (Boston,  1873).     A  reply  to  Clarke 
will    be  found    in   Cleo.   V.   and  Anna   M.  Comfort,   ]\'o»xui's    Education   and 
Woman's  Health.     1^.74. 


Psychology  and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence        311 

8.  What  arc  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  coeducation  in  the 
high  schools  ?  Of  partial  segregation  ?  Of  separate  schools  ? 

Q.  What  is  the  relation  of  sex  hygiene  to  general  education?  How 
should  the  problem  of  instruction  in  sex  hygiene  be  handled  ? 

10.  What  progress  has  been  made  in  the  solution  of  this  problem? 

11.  What  is  the  relation  to  character  formation  of  athletics;    inter- 
scholastic  contests;   physical  training? 

12.  What  loss  is  there  of  individuality  and  initiative,  and  hence  moral 
intelligence,  through  the  pressure  of  custom  and  fashions? 

13.  What   is  the  moral  effect    in  high  school  of  college   ideals  and 
fashions? 

14.  What  relation  docs  the  size  of  a  school  have  to  the  attainment  of 
moral  results  ? 

1 5.  What  are  the  sources  of  moral  influence  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  ? 

16.  Make  a  study  of  great  teachers  of  youth:    Vittorino,  Loyola, 
Arnold  of  Rugby,  Thring  of  Uppingham  ;    Mark  Hopkins  ;   etc. 

1 7.  What  is  the  value  and  what  are  the  best  forms  of  religious  exercises 
and  instruction  ? 

1 8.  What  is  the  ethical  value  of  the  study  of  current  social  and  economic 
movements  ? 

REFERENCES 

BTRK,  F.  S.  Growth  of  Children  in  Height  and  Weight.  Am.  Jour. 
Psych.,  1898,  pp.  253-326. 

BKRRY,  FRANCKS  MAY  L).  On  the  Physical  Examination  of  London 
School  Children  and  the  Prevalence  of  Albuminuria.  I.  Inter- 
nationale Kongrcss  fii>-  Schulhygicne,  Nurnberg,  April,  1904,  Band 
III,  pp.  421-425. 

BURXHAM,  WILLIAM  11.  The  Study  of  Adolescence.  Pcd.  Scm.  i8gi, 
Vol.  1,  No.  2,  pp.  174-105. 

CLOUSTON,  THOMAS  S.     Hygiene  of  Mind.     London,  igo6.     284  pp. 
.\enroses   of  Development;    being    the    Morison    lectures    for    1890. 
London,  1891,  138  pp. 

CRAMPTOX,  C.  WARD.  Anatomical  or  Physiological  Age  versus  Chrono- 
logical Age.  l\d.  Seni.  June,  1908.  Vol.  XV,  pp.  230-237. 

HALL,   G.   STAXLKY.     Adolescence.    2  vols.     New  York,   1907. 

Youth.     New  York,    1906.     A  resume  of  the  pedagogical  aspects  of 
adolescence. 

KING,  IRVING.     The  Hig/i  School  Age.     233  pp.     Indianapolis,  1914. 

LANCASTER.  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Adolescence.  Fed.  Sent., 
1897,  pp.  (» 1-128. 


312  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

LEMAITRE.    La  Vie  Mcntalc  de  V Adolescent,  d  ses  Anomalies.     Paris,  igio. 

MARRO,  A.  La  Pubcrta.  507  pp.  Bocca,  Torino,  1897.  French 
translation,  La  Puberte.  Paris,  1902.  This  deals  chiefly  with  the 
physiological  side  of  the  subject. 

MEYER,  ADOLF.  What  do  Histories  of  Cases  of  Insanity  Teach  Us  Con- 
cerning Preventive  Mental  Hygiene  during  the  Years  of  School  Life  ? 
Psych.,  Clinic.  June  15,  1908.  Vol.  II,  No.  4,  pp.  89-101. 

MOLL,  A.     Sexual  Life  of  the  Child.     339  pp.     New  York,  1911. 

SCOTT,  COLIN.     Social  Education.     Boston,  1908. 

SLAUGHTER,  J.  W.     The  Adolescent,     in  pp.     London,  1911. 

STARBUCK,  E.  H.  Psychology  of  Religion,  especially  the  sections  dealing 
with  conversion.  New  York,  1901. 

SWIFT,  E.  J.     Mind  in  the  Making,     329  pp.     New  York,  1908. 

TYLER,  J.  M.     The  Laws  of  Growth  and  Development.     New  York,  1906. 
For  physiological  and  abnormal  phases  of  the  subject,  the  reader 
should  also  refer  to  the  works  of  Havelock  Ellis  and  Freud. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 


WILL    DEVELOPMENT    THROUGH    WILL    ACTION. 

-  The  character  of  the  individual  is  little  changed  by  what  he 
merely  undergoes:  Herbart  long  ago  called  attention  to  the  re- 
markable fact  that  physical  agony,  even  though  in  tense  and  long 
continued,  may  leave  the  character  essentially  unchanged ;  men 
rise  from  the  most  serious  bodily  accidents  and  illnesses  the 
same  in  opinions,  manners,  and  morals.  It  is  what  the  individ- 
ual himself  resolves  and  does  that  forms  new  habits  and 
attitudes  and  so  essentially  modifies  character.  "  Those 
things  which  proceed  out  of  the  mouth  come  forth  from  the 
heart,  and  they  defile  a  man  ";  no  less  do  such  things,  when 
good,  ennoble  a  man.  In  both  cases  the  things  that  proceed 
from  the  heart  —  i.e.  the  \vill  —  leave  their  mark  on  charac- 
ter. Mere  external  compliance  is  futile  in  producing  habits, 
principles,  or  ideals.  The  literature  on  moral  education  is 
always  echoing  the  cry  of  the  German  teacher  of  religion,  when 
his  most  recalcitrant  pupil  passes  the  most  brilliant  examina- 
tion. "  Why,  he  know  it  all!  "  the  examiner  cries.  "  Yes,  but 
he  believes  none  of  it !  "  retorts  the  discomfited  but  unconvinced 
teacher. 

In  one  way  it  is  a  mere  truism  to  say  that  will  power  and 
righteousness  grow  by  exercise  of  will,  and  in  no  other  way. 
There  would  be  no  excuse  for  dwelling  upon  the  principle  if  it 
were  not  that  it  is  sweepingly  ignored  in  practice;  both  the 
principle  itself,  and  the  prevailing  disregard  of  it  in  our  edu- 
cational practice  are  admirably  expressed  by  Professor  Dewey  : 
"  Xo  one  seriously  questions  that,  with  an  adult,  power  and 

313 


314  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

control  are  obtained  through  realization  of  personal  ends  and 
problems,  through  personal  selection  of  means  and  materials 
which  are  relevant,  and  through  personal  adaptation  and 
application  of  what  is  thus  selected,  together  with  whatever 
of  experimentation  and  of  testing  is  involved  in  this  effort. 
Practically  every  one  of  these  three  conditions  of  increase  in 
power  for  the  adult  is  denied  for  the  child.  For  him  problems 
and  aims  are  determined  by  another  mind.  For  him  the  mate- 
rial that  is  relevant  or  irrelevant  is  selected  in  advance  by 
another  mind."  .  .  -1 

We  may  well  be  apprehensive  of  an  education  that  occupies 
the  adolescent  youth  with  doing  what  some  one  tells  him  to  do, 
and  confers  its  highest  rewards  and  commendations  without 
regard  to  independence  or  originality  of  either  intellect  or  will; 
and,  moreover,  compels  him  to  employ  his  school  hours  with 
so-called  studies  (far  indeed  from  the  true  sense  of  the  old 
Latin  word)  the  very  meaning  and  use  of  which  he  does  not 
comprehend  and  often  profoundly  doubts.  Such  education 
can  form  only  a  will  that  is  dependent,  unstable,  void  of 
self-reliance  and  initiative:  not  necessarily  lacking  in  mere 
force  or  violence,  but  devoid  of  the  sole  supreme  mark  of 
a  mature  or  maturing  will,  a  self-existing  and  self-sustaining 
purpose. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  boy's  actual  will  training  is  almost  cer- 
tain to  take  place  out  of  school,  and  the  influences  of  culture 
and  higher  thought  which  the  school  more  than  any  other 
agency  should  communicate,  fail  to  penetrate  deeper  than  the 
most  superficial  layers  of  memory,  and  fade  into  oblivion  al- 
most before  the  expiration  of  the  term  in  which  they  are 
studied:  and  volition,  with  all  its  domination  over  life,  is 
determined  by  business,  politics,  pleasure,  —  or  on  the  other 
hand  by  the  stimulus  of  some  upward  social  movement  in  the 
larger  world. 

1  Psychology  and  Social  Practice,  p.  128.  See  also  College  Students' 
Comments  on  their  own  High  School  Training,  School  Rtvic-ic,  December,  191  j. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  315 

INTELLECTUAL  ASPECT.  —  Not  only  does  will  grow 
only  by  exercise  of  will,  but  intellect  also  develops  most 
effectively  under  the  stimulus  of  the  learner's  own  self-active 
purpose  and  volition.  Every  teacher  knows  how  knowledge 
and  intellectual  mastery  leap  forward  when  the  pupil  is  eager 
to  learn.  Attention  is  the  absolute  sine  qua  non  of  new  associa- 
tions and  so  of  knowledge  and  mental  power,1  and  attention  is 
also  in  its  deepest  forms  indissolubly  linked  with  voluntary 
action  or  will.2  So  far,  then,  from  true  moral  training  in  any 
way  detracting  from  intellectual  achievement,  the  exact  oppo- 
site is  the  case  ;  if  we  can  enlist  the  pupil's  will  in  such  manner 
as  to  secure  true  moral  development,  we  shall  also  increase 
and  wonderfully  enhance  the  progress  of  the  intellectual 
powers.  "  Since  problems  of  conduct  are  the  deepest  and  most 
common  of  all  the  problems  of  life,"  says  Professor  Dewey, 
"  the  ways  in  which  they  are  met  have  an  influence  that 
radiates  into  every  other  mental  attitude,  even  those  remote 
from  any  direct  or  conscious  moral  consideration.  Indeed, 
the  deepest  plane  of  the  mental  attitude  of  every  one  is  fixed 
by  the  way  in  which  the  problems  of  behavior  are  treated."3 

Dr.  Kerschensteiner,  out  of  a  rich  experience  in  the  practical 
problems  of  public  education,  declares:  "  Any  training  of  the 
intellect  deserves  attention  only  so  far  as  it  rests  on  the  char- 
acter —  in  a  manner  it  proceeds  from  the  character,  because 
the  way  to  the  head  is  opened  through  the  heart.4  As 
things  are  the  pupil  may  do  'thinking'  enough,  —  or  at 
least  brow  bending  and  brain  racking,  —  but  it  is  not  his 
thinking  ;  it  is  done  '  for  '  Mr.  or  Miss  So-and-so  ;  it  is  a  hired 
servant's  thinking,  and  has  little  or  no  root  in  the  student's 
own  mind  ;  even  intellectually  this  is  gravely  injurious,  as  is 
well  indicated  by  the  poverty-stricken  results  in  various  studies, 

1  McDou^ull,  Physiological  Psychology,  p.  120. 

-  J times,    Psychology   (Briefer  Course),    p.  448.     Belts,  The  Mind   and   Its 
Education,  pp.  230-237  ;   MiinsterberK,  Psychology  and  the  Teacher,  pp.  186-187. 

:!  I  lav.'  we  Think,  p.  54. 

*  Education  for  Citizenship,  p.  uo.     Chicago,  IQII. 


316  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

while  in  relation  to  moral  culture  it  is  ruinous.  This  heterono- 
mous  intellection  leaves  behind  it  no  blessed  legacy  of  mental 
power:  this  is  why  the  college  teacher  is  never  done  lamenting 
that  the  high  school  graduate  has  not  learned  to  think;  and 
no  less  does  the  high  school  teacher  pass  the  condemnation  on 
to  the  elementary  grades." 

In  other  words,  the  secret  of  better  intellectual  results  and 
more  effective  moral  training  lie  very  close  together,  and  both 
involve  the  fuller  enlistment  and  activation  of  the  will  of  the 
learner.  We  are  anxious  to  make  this  point  prominent  at  the 
outset:  the  advocacy  of  more  attention  to  the  moral  aspect  of 
education  in  the  secondary  period  does  not  involve  any  diminu- 
tion in  intellectual  achievement,  but  quite  the  opposite.  We 
shall  certainly  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  interests  of  the 
moral  cultivation  will  demand  some  changes  in  the  content  of 
the  program  of  studies,  but  its  first  and  most  essential  aim  is 
the  vitalization  of  whatever  the  pupil  does,  including  his 
intellectual  pursuits ;  it  demands  that  in  them  he  shall  always 
work  at  high  efficiency,  to  the  limits  of  his  best  capacities: 
this  is  the  essence  of  moral  training.  The  secondary  teacher, 
being  usually  a  college  or  university  graduate,  is  likely  to  be 
primarily  concerned  for  intellectual  results,  in  spite  of  the 
article  in  the  orthodox  pedagogic  creed  declaring  character 
to  be  the  supreme  aim  of  all  education.  We  shall  have  some 
criticism  to  pass  upon  the  teacher's  intellectualism  later: 
here  we  prefer  to  make  peace  with  it,  by  making  it  clear  that 
the  first  and  most  fundamental  move  in  better  moral  training 
will  be  no  less  an  advance  in  school  pursuits,  whether  science, 
humanities,  or  vocational  training. 

THE  MORAL  ELEMENT  PERVADES  ALL.  —  Moral 
education,  then,  is  in  no  sense  a  branch  of  education,  and  the 
attempt  to  treat  it  as  such  is  the  cause  of  endless  fallacies  and 
abuses,  as  well  as  most  of  the  disputes  and  misunderstandings 
on  the  subject.  Still  less  can  it  be  a  sort  of  addendum  or  appen- 
dix to  the  rest;  it  is  truly  the  consummation  and  resultant 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  317 

of  all ;  it  must  enlist  and  employ  all  the  activities  of  the  child. 
The  "  branches  "  are  all  abstractions,  each  more  or  less  sepa- 
rable, often,  alas,  isolated;  but  one  thing  is  always  present 
-  the  child  himself —  and  always  becoming  what  he  is  to  be. 

Least  of  all  can  there  be  a  special  teacher  solely  answerable 
for  moral  training,  nor  can  any  teacher  of  children  or  youth 
for  one  moment  be  absolved  or  discharged  from  responsibility 
for  the  culture  of  the  will.  Perhaps  no  point  is  more  immedi- 
ately vital  to  the  existing  secondary  school  and  college  situa- 
tion.1 Thus  Rousseau  says  rightly :  "  There  is  only  one  science 
to  be  taught  to  children,  namely,  that  of  the  duties  of  man." 
The  whole  task  of  education  is  moral;  it  is  the  guidance  of  the 
child  into  such  performance  of  his  own  present  childish  duties 
that  he  shall  grow  into  consciousness  of  the  duties  of  his  man- 
hood, and  into  the  possession  of  powers  to  discharge  them. 

THE  WILL  EXERCISES  ON  PROBLEMS.  —  The  exer- 
cise of  the  will,  then,  demands  a  task  or  a  problem,  and  the 
exercise  of  my  will  demands  that  I  should  have  a  problem. 
True,  it  may  have  been  but  now  any  one's  problem,  but  before 
my  will,  as  a  real  will,  can  act  upon  it,  I  must  adopt  it  and 
make  it  for  the  time  at  least  my  very  own.  The  true  essence 
of  moral  education  is  the  actual  unmitigated  and  concrete 
operation  of  the  will  itself;  all  else  is  but  preliminary,  sub- 
ordinate, auxiliary,  and  without  this  ends  in  nothing  or  less 
than  nothing;  other  processes  are  worthy  only  as  instruments 
or  aids  to  arouse  the  sovereign  act  itself,  or  minister  to  its 
full  performance. 

Even  at  some  risk,  then,  of  the  fallacies  of  conciseness,  we 
may  say  that  the  essential  method  of  moral  education  consists 
in  helping  the  educand  to  grasp  and  solve  his  own  problems, 
and  to  advance  from  those  which  he  has  by  nature  and  through 
the  stimulus  of  his  present  environment,  to  the  perception, 

1  This  docs  not,  however,  at  all  dispose  of  the  question  of  moral  or  ethical 
lessons,  with  a  place  in  the  course  of  study  and  on  the  daily  and  weekly  sched- 
ule. 


318  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

adoption,  and  solution  of  the  problems  of  his  mature  life  in 
society. 

The  multifarious  and  confusing  miscellany  of  ways  and 
means  in  moral  education,  of  methods,  plans,  decrees,  instruc- 
tion, and  discipline,  here  find  their  unity,  and  their  only  possi- 
ble justification.  The  test  question  must  always  be:  What 
will  aid  the  educand  to  solve  his  problems  aright  and  move 
toward  new  ones,  and  so  approach  the  perfected  will  ?  The 
fact  is  that  just  as  in  instruction  the  golden  rule  is,  "  Unless 
the  mind  of  the  learner  works,  all  is  in  vain  "  —  so  in  training, 
discipline,  moral  education  of  every  kind,  it  is,  "  Unless  the 
will  of  the  educand  acts  all  is  in  vain."  Hence,  just  as  instruc- 
tion must  wait  upon  and  stimulate  interest,  will  training 
operates  through  problems  and  action. 

THE  SOURCES  OF  ENERGY.  —  Another  aspect  of  the 
question  must  be  examined:  character  is  character  only  by 
virtue  of  being  endued  with  power,  with  dynamic  force  to 
enact  itself  against  resistance.  Hence  moral  training,  as 
contrasted  with  mere  intellectual  or  aesthetic  culture,  must 
needs  make  connection  with  the  sources  of  energy  in  the 
educand.  But  the  existence  of  a  problem  in  the  mind  is 
exactly  the  best  evidence  of  will  energy  ready  to  be  released  as 
soon  as  the  appropriate  channel  or  direction  is  determined. 
The  youth  is  deliberating  what  he  shall  do:  the  very  cause  of 
the  mental  state  is  the  underlying  dynamic  state.  The  per- 
sistency and  intensity  with  which  the  problem  holds  the  atten- 
tion is  a  measure  of  the  amount  of  potential  energy  stored 
behind  it.  Hence,  if  we  can  only  discover  the  problem,  we 
have  located  the  forces  demanded  in  the  make-up  of  character. 

Moreover,  the  personal  relation  of  the  teacher  to  his  pupils 
is  never  so  favorable  and  effective  as  when  he  helps  them  to 
solve  their  own  problems ;  suspicion  and  aloofness  are  ban- 
ished, the  pupil's  mind  is  open  and  eager,  his  heart  is  receptive 
and  cordial,  the  teacher  becomes  truly  what  he  so  deeply 
desires  to  be,  "  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend."  One  of  the 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  319 

most  convincing  collateral  evidences  of  the  correctness  of  this 
method  of  moral  education  is  found  in  the  countless  actual 
cases  of  all  shades  and  varieties,  where  a  teacher  or  adviser 
does  succeed  in  getting  hold  of  the  pupil  and  changing  his 
conduct  and  his  character  just  by  showing  him  that  a  prob- 
lem of  his  own  is  involved  in  the  situation,  and  that  for  him 
the  vital  point  is  the  solution  of  that  problem.  The  idle  boy 
is  brought  to  see  the  probable  effect  of  his  indolence  upon  his 
own  future,  and  the  stern  necessity  of  fostering  a  new  habit  of 
work ;  the  disorderly  or  insubordinate  is  shown  the  larger 
social  self,  himself  as  he  ought  to  be,  and  is  awakened  to  culti- 
vate that  enhanced  self;  the  youth  who  is  set  on  leaving  school 
against  his  parents'  will  comes  to  see  that  his  life  problem 
cannot  be  solved  or  even  worked  at  without  reckoning  in  those 
parents,  their  happiness  and  welfare.  Let  any  one  read  any 
story  of  influence,  Arnold  at  Rugby,  Thring  at  Uppingham, 
Stableton  in  his  little  Diary  of  a  Western  Schoolmaster, 
Judge  Lindsey,  William  G.  George,  dealing  with  normal  or 
pathological  cases,  and  he  will  find,  practically  without  excep- 
tion, that  the  method  of  success  was  to  help  the  child  to  find 
and  deal  with  his  own  problem,  and  so  discover  and  coniirm 
his  true  self. 

THE  BROADENING  OF  SYMPATHY.  —  Possibly,  some 
one  may  apprehend  egoism  or  individualism  in  such  moral 
training,  but  this  can  only  be  on  a  superficial  view ;  in  the 
natural  development  of  a  human  being  his  problems  broaden 
to  include  more  and  more  others ;  his  affections  widen  as  well 
as  his  knowledge,  and  wherever  his  affections  fix  themselves, 
there  his  problem  is  found.  The  larger  social  self  grows  by  a 
process  of  development ;  even  in  infancy  egoism  is  far  from 
being  sole  determinant  of  thought  and  action,  and  in  all 
healthy  growth  the  narrower  self  is  soon  overgrown  by  a  true 
human  heart  and  will.  All  of  this  should  become  clearer  as 
we  consider  the  actual  problems  of  youth,  which  is,  par  ex- 
cellence, the  era  of  socialization. 


320  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Perhaps  we  are  fortunate  in  having  to  deal  with  adolescent 
youth,  for  even  those  who  might  think  the  foregoing  state- 
ments extreme  if  applied  to  the  training  of  small  children 
can  surely  agree  to  their  truth  in  respect  to  young  people 
treading  on  the  verge  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  the  vast 
majority  of  whose  fellows  of  equal  age  have  indeed  already 
left  the  school  for  good  and  are  doing  adult  work  in  the 
world.1 

One  word  of  caution:  the  doctrine  that  we  must  train  the 
will  of  the  student  through  his  own  problems  does  not  in  the 
least  imply  that  we  are  to  abandon  him  to  his  own  whims  and 
caprices  nor  that  his  training  is  to  be  soft  and  indulgent;  on 
the  contrary,  it  demands  that  his  real  forces,  now  often 
squandered  on  specious  and  trivial  pursuits  which  delude 
his  immature  and  unaided  vision,  shall  instead  be  devoted 
to  the  tasks  which  really  lie  along  the  true  path  of  his  growth 
and  destiny;  he  will  generate  more  energy,  and  apply  it  far 
more  effectively  than  under  any  other  system  of  training:  he 
will  work  harder,  endure  more  toil  and  hardship,  overcome  more 
obstacles,  and  vitalize  and  toughen  his  moral  fiber,  far  beyond 
the  measure  of  any  forced  and  alien  compulsion:  and  his 
powers  will  be  his  own,  and  will  already  be  enlisted  and 
organized  under  the  command  of  his  own  purpose,  indeed,  in 
the  cases  of  highest  success,  under  the  supreme  leadership  of 
the  greatest  and  final  phase  of  the  will,  a  worthy  life  aim. 

TEE    PROBLEMS  OF    YOUTH 

WHAT  ARE  THE  PROBLEMS  ?  —  The  first  task  of  moral 
education,  then,  is  to  penetrate  the  heart  of  youth  and  there 
discover  its  real  problems.  To  what  themes  does  his  mind 
turn  easily,  naturally,  irresistibly,  as  the  needle  turns  to  the 
pole  ?  What  are  his  uncompelled  cogitations,  his  freest 

1  See  J.  K.  Hart,  A  Critical  Study  of  Current  Theories  of  Moral  Education, 
p.  36. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  321 

thoughts  ?  To  what  does  his  inner  consciousness  swing  in  repose, 
or  even  against  the  external  calls  of  duty,  of  work,  of  study,  of 
parental,  pedagogical,  or  occupational  pressure  ?  Above  all, 
what  is  he  anxious  and  concerned  about,  what  is  he  eager  to 
achieve  or  compass,  in  what  does  he  think  to  find  joy,  and  in 
what  does  he  dread  to  endure  loss  and  failure?  To  the  dis- 
covery of  these  secret  currents  of  the  souls  of  youth  must  we 
devote  all  our  sympathy,  and  no  less  all  our  wisdom,  even 
shrewdness.  And  this  not  merely  to  indulge  these  native 
tendencies ;  certainly  not,  as  is  too  much  the  fashion,  to  laugh 
at  them  ;  not  even  to  be  content  with  them  as  they  are;  but  to 
utilize  them.  They  are  the  data  of  the  will,  the  sources  of 
both  power  and  direction.  Out  of  them,  or  out  of  nothing, 
must  the  full-grown  human  will  develop.  We  are  dealing 
here,  as  it  were,  with  the  natural  history  of  the  adolescent 
will.1 

The  scientific  treatment  of  such  a  field  is  infinitely  difficult 
and  is  certainly  as  yet  in  its  infancy.  Adolescence  is  the  high 
point  of  modesty  and  reticence.  This  need  by  no  means 
surprise  us,  inasmuch  as  the  two  most  prolific  sources  of  the 
inner  consciousness  and  problems  of  youth  are,  as  we  shall  see 
more  fully  later,  the  sentiment  of  self,  and  the  new  elements 
of  sex  life,  both  of  which  are  exceedingly  affected  by  the 
sentiment  of  modesty. 

SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION.  —  What,  then,  are  the 
sources  of  information  as  to  the  consciousness  of  adolescence  ? 
First,  the  recollections  of  our  own  youth ;  this  not  only  gives 
us  the  only  possible  immediate  knowledge  we  can  have  on  the 
subject,  secure  from  all  fallacies  of  communication  or  interpre- 
tation, but  it  gives  us  the  clew  by  which  we  may  grasp  and 
interpret  all  other  available  knowledge.  Probably  nothing 
is  more  invaluable  to  the  teachers  of  youth  than  that  they 
should  themselves  have  lived  a  full,  rich,  and  normal  adoles- 
cence, and  should  keep  an  ever-living  memory  thereof.  Only 

1  Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  36,  37. 


322  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

thus  can  we  hope  for  even  a  beginning  of  comprehension  and 
sympathy  for  our  students.1 

Of  course  the  students  themselves  are  the  second  source  of 
information.  Other  knowledge  is  useful  to  interpret,  check  up, 
and  perhaps  supplement,  but  this  furnishes  the  real  data  of 
our  problem.  The  high  school  teacher  needs  to  study  his 
own  pupils  outside  of  the  classroom  work;  play  of  volition  is 
far  fuller  and  more  typical  there  than  in  the  schoolroom  under 
any  ordinary  conditions.  There  are  rich  sources  of  knowledge 
almost  unworked ;  for  example,  athletics  and  social  life.  As 
to  the  former  the  teachers  fall  mostly  into  two  classes  —  some 
preserve  an  adolescent  attitude  of  uncritical  enthusiasm; 
others  grow  gradually  into  a  sort  of  jealous  hostility,  some- 
times so  mild  as  to  appear  as  mere  indifference,  sometimes 
very  intense.  Both  classes  fail  to  study  the  phenomena  in  any 
profitable  manner.  A  conspicuous  feature  of  the  social  life 
has  been  the  fraternity ;  high  school  workers  have  devoted 
much  earnest  thought  to  the  external,  administrative  problem 
involved,  and  have  been  led  generally  into  relentless  war  upon 
the  organizations,  sometimes  resulting  in  bitter  conflicts  re- 
quiring the  aid  of  the  courts  to  settle  them.  Practically  all 
the  best  friends  of  the  high  schools  are  against  the  fraternities, 
and  agree  that  the  school  authorities  are  right  in  exterminating 
them.  But  we  have  not  properly  studied  the  phenomena 
involved,  as  manifesting  in  extreme  form  some  of  the  charac- 
teristic elements  of  adolescent  volition.  We  must  extend  our 
inquiry  beyond  the  more  external  symptoms  of  snobbery, 
insubordination,  dissipation,  and  general  deterioration,  and 
investigate  the  impulses  and  volitional  forces,  in  the  individual 
boy  and  in  the  group,  that  underlie  and  explain  the  boys' 
intense,  almost  furious  devotion  to  their  society  and  to  the 
fraternity  idea.  These  impulses  and  forces  are  in  themselves 
good,  and  need  not  to  be  destroyed  but  to  be  guided. 

1  On  the  tendency  to  forget  one's  own  adolescence,  see  Hall,  Youth,  pp.  144- 
145- 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  323 

Doubtless  there  is  some  help  to  be  found  in  literature.  The 
immense  mass  of  descriptive  and  statistical  matter  in  the 
literature  of  the  Hall  school  will  naturally  come  first  to  mind. 
Most  of  us  must  take  it  with  some  caution,  and  probably  in 
rather  moderate  doses,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  runs  much 
to  the  abnormal  and  pathological.  Yet  it  is  the  only  consider- 
able effort  yet  made  to  study  youth  by  scientific  and  especially 
by  biological  methods  ;  and  these  methods  seem  indispensable 
in  the  study  of  volition.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  earnest 
student  of  high  school  education  can  afford  to  ignore  this 
source.  Two  books  must  be  mentioned  as  highly  prophetic 
and  interpretative,  as  well  as  powerfully  inspiring  —  Jane 
Addams'  Spirit  of  Youth  and  Our  City  Streets,  and  Charles 
Wagner's  Youth.  Then  there  are  accounts  of  methods  of 
dealing  with  adolescents,  and  of  their  responses  to  these 
methods.  The  lives  of  Arnold  and  Thring  are  invaluable ; 
before  the  days  of  adolescent  psychology  they  perceived  and 
utilized  the  laws  of  the  volitional  life  of  boys.  In  our  own 
days  numerous  accounts  of  boys'  clubs,  school  cities,  and 
other  juvenile  activities,  furnish  pertinent  and  often  valuable 
data.  The  George  Junior  Republic  is  a  fascinating  study  in 
not-quite-normal  adolescence,  to  be  taken,  doubtless,  with 
some  caution  ;  juvenile  court  experience  is  a  profitable  study. 
Exceedingly  valuable  in  this  field  are  the  methods  and  experi- 
ences recorded  in  Reeder's  How  Two  Hundred  Children  Live 
and  Learn,  and,  with  still  closer  relation  to  school  life,  Stable- 
ton's  Diary  of  a  Western  Sclioolmastcr. 

THE  LARGER  LIFE.  —  The  school  or  the  teacher  who 
thinks  only  in  terms  of  school  reckons  without  his  host.  The 
bigger  world  already  has  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  youth ;  his 
problems  are  all  determined  by  the  forms  of  life  into  which 
he  feels  himself  swiftly  moving.  His  most  personal  ideals  are 
meant  in  the  last  analysis  to  conform  or  to  please ;  his  diver- 
sions are  not  solitary  but  love  the  group  or  even  the  crowd ; 
his  calling  will  be  one  of  the  functions  that  society  has  ready 


324  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

made  for  him ;  even  his  religion  will  come  from  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  many  now  living  and  more  who  have  passed  away. 
No  less  social  are  the  means  at  the  hand  of  the  school  for  guid- 
ing the  youth  in  solving  his  problems.  It  is  easy  for  the  edu- 
cator to  throw  away  his  labors  by  building  what  the  rushing 
forces  of  life  will  sweep  quickly  away ;  — •  nay,  the  currents  of 
life,  unperceived  by  his  academic  vision,  may  be  carrying 
away  his  foundations  while  he  is  laying  them. 

Our  athletic  affairs  are  molded  by  the  national  situation; 
the  old  village  green,  where  the  many  played  and  a  few  old 
folk  and  infants  looked  on,  has  been  changed  to  the  baseball  or 
football  park,  where  a  handful  of  professionals  are  exhibited 
in  an  arena,  while  thousands  sit  in  pathological  super-excite- 
ment, with  every  normal  avenue  of  expression  choked  up,  and 
all  the  efferent  nerve  currents  poured  into  flushed  and  dis- 
torted faces  or  furious  vociferation.  College  and  high  school 
have  been  drawn  into  the  vortex,  and  the  flower  of  the  young 
men  are  often  sacrificed  in  one  way  or  another  to  "  make  a 
Roman  holiday."  The  incoherent  cries  of  the  "  fan  "  are 
organized  under  the  "  yell  leader,"  and  an  athletic  liturgy  is 
consecrated  out  of  noise.  Until  society  at  large  awakens  to 
the  truth  of  the  matter  it  will  be  hard  to  reform  athletics  and 
rehabilitate  physical  education  in  schools  and  colleges.  An 
exceedingly  close  parallel  maybe  drawn  for  social  life  in  general, 
involving  such  matters  as  dress,  dances,  parties,  fraternities, 
smoking,  and  the  like. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  big  world  is  full  of  constructive  forces. 
The  people  in  general  are  on  the  side  of  the  right,  especially 
when  it  affects  their  children's  training  and  future.  Business, 
with  all  its  vices,  and  work,  with  all  its  imperfections,  are  great 
educative  forces  that  have  raised  man  above  savagery  and 
contributed  to  the  education  of  all  generations.  The  chief 
vice  of  the  public  with  reference  to  the  school  is  ignorance  and 
neglect;  the  great  task  of  the  school  administrator  in  this 
respect  is  to  awaken  and  enlighten  public  opinion,  and  enlist 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  325 

its  aid  in  maintaining  the  moral  conditions  in  and  out  of  school 
that  arc  the  indispensable  ground  and  support  of  moral 
education  in  the  school. 

THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT.  —  The  actual  point  of  con- 
tact between  educator  and  educand,  the  problem  itself,  and 
the  exact  form  or  aspect  of  the  problem,  depend  greatly  upon 
the  subtle,  indefinable,  yet  most  real  relation  between  the  two 
persons  concerned.  To  discover  and  vitalize  this  contact  is 
the  supreme  art  of  influence,  in  which  any  large  success  comes 
only  through  what  may  figuratively  be  called  in  words  of 
Jesus  "  fasting  and  much  prayer,"  that  is, deep  and  self-effacing 
devotion.  This  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  so  many  wise  and 
earnest  thinkers  are  unwilling  to  admit  any  definite  or  would-be 
scientific  treatment  of  the  problem  of  moral  training,  and 
assign  everything  to  the  "  personality  of  the  teacher."  It  is 
this  also  which  leads  even  Herbart,  the  great  prophet  of  a 
completely  mechanized  pedagogy,  after  he  has  expounded 
all  his  principles  and  formulated  all  his  rules,  to  discuss  Tact 
at  some  length  as  the  indispensable  attitude,  incommunicable 
and  defying  all  analysis  and  description,  which  must  guide 
and  animate  any  method  whatsoever  if  real  success  is  to  be 
achieved.  It  would  be  foolish  to  deny  or  belittle  the  impor- 
tance of  personality  and  tact  as  emphasized  by  these  and 
similar  statements ;  but  we  must  resist  their  more  extreme 
forms,  and  insist  on  believing  in  the  ultimate  possibility  of  a 
scientific  solution  of  even  the  problem  of  moral  training,  on 
the  ground  that  we  are  confronted  not  with  an  irrational  or 
inherently  incalculable  activity,  but  only  with  an  exceedingly 
complex  one. 

THE  GREAT  PROBLEMS.  —  When  we  undertake  any 
descriptive  account  of  the  problems  of  youth,  it  is  easy  to 
enumerate  concrete  and  definite  things  that  the  adolescent 
undertakes  and  for  which  he  will  labor  most  strenuously ; * 
"making  the  team"  is  perhaps  the  most  striking;  keep- 
1  See,  for  example,  Hall,  Youth,  Chap.  8,  Biographers  of  Youth. 


326  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ing  his  standing  with  his  fellows  is  another ;  earning 
money  is  often  another ;  very  commonly  he  gives  much  and 
conscious  thought  to  his  personal  appearance  and  dress ;  any 
conduct  that  is  considered  loyalty  to  the  school  can  usually 
command  his  best  efforts ;  he  sometimes,  and  she  oftener, 
will  expend  great  efforts,  even  to  the  point  of  overstrain  and 
injury,  in  order  to  keep  up  in  scholarship ;  and  so  on  through 
an  indefinite  list.  Such  things  as  these  are  the  original  data, 
careful  observation  and  description  of  which  are  the  pre- 
requisite of  any  scientific  treatment. 

While  there  is  much  variety  of  opinion  as  to  details,  there  is 
general  recognition  of  the  idea  that  these  adolescent  tendencies 
group  themselves  largely  about  four  or  five  great  problems ; 
for  practical  discussion  we  present  a  rough  outline  of  these. 

The  first  is  the  discovery  and  perfection  of  the  Self,  both 
individual  and  social,  which,  in  its  broad  sense,  evidently 
includes  all  other  possible  problems  ;  next  amusement,  recrea- 
tion, "  fun,"  in  a  vast  variety  of  forms  ;  then  two  that  belong 
peculiarly  to  adolescence  :  first,  relation  to  the  other  sex,  involv- 
ing sexual  life  itself,  love,  marriage,  and  family  ;  then  vocation 
and  economic  success,  rising  into  the  ideal  of  a  life  career. 
The  fifth  great  choice  is  a  religion,  not  at  all  in  the  theological 
but  in  the  ethical  sense,  —  something  which  dominates  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  will,  forms  the  object  of  supreme  desire, 
and  so  assimilates  to  itself  all  other  motives.  These  great 
questions  are  being  asked  more  or  less  definitely  by  young 
people  everywhere ;  nowhere,  it  is  natural  to  suppose,  more 
than  in  high  schools.  They  may  be  put  into  words  somewhat 
thus:  (i)  "What  sort  of  person  am  I  going  to  be?"  (2) 
"  How  am  I  going  to  find  my  amusement,  spend  my  leisure 
time?"  (3)  "What  attitude  am  I  going  to  take  toward 
women  (or  men)?"  (4)  "  What  shall  I  do  for  a  living?" 
or  more  naively,  "  How  am  I  going  to  make  money?  "  and 
finally,  though  far  less  likely  to  take  any  definite  or  even  con- 
scious form,  (5)  "  What  am  I  going  to  put  above  everything 
else?  What  am  I  going  to  serve  with  all  mv  heart?  " 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  327 

THE  GREAT   DETERMINATIONS 

THE  REALIZATION  OF  THE  SELF.  —  Of  the  five  great 
adolescent  will  activities  only  one  has  been  generally  recog- 
nized by  formal  education,  that  is,  the  first,  self-development 
and  perfection ;  and  this  in  a  comparatively  narrow  and  feeble 
form.  Much  stress  has  been  laid  by  the  school  upon  the  in- 
tellectual progress  of  the  pupil,  and  that  with  constant  empha- 
sis upon  his  remote  future  welfare  and  success.  Of  course 
such  an  appeal  is  legitimate  and  not  without  effect.  But  it  is 
subject  to  at  least  three  serious  weaknesses :  first,  the  normal 
youth  is  not  yet  effectively  concerned  for  his  scholastic  achieve- 
ment ;  second,  his  will  needs  not  a  remote  but  an  immediate 
stimulus ;  and  third,  the  youth  who  most  needs  guidance 
and  stimulus  will  almost  always  be  least  affected  by  the  intel- 
lectual ideal. 

Physique.  —  On  the  other  hand,  the  powerful  impulse 
toward  physical  strength,  beauty,  grace,  efficiency,  prowess, 
has  been  allowed  to  run  largely  to  waste,  or  even  to  militate 
against  the  avowed  aims  of  the  school.1  The  case  of  school 
athletics  is  too  familiar  to  need  rehearsal  here ;  but  it  is  im- 
possible that  WTC  should  gain  our  moral  ends  with  high  school 
youth  unless  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  potent  athletic  impulse ; 
the  early  adolescent  will  make  any  sacrifices,  endure  any 
labors,  perform  the  incredible,  —  as  every  coach  knows,  - 
to  demonstrate  his  manly  powrers  to  himself  and  his  fellows. 
The  question  is  no  mere  physiological  one,  —  a  human  body 
is  a  psycho-physical  thing ;  our  most  serious  loss  at  present  is 
the  loss  of  psychic  results  obtainable  but  not  obtained  from 
physical  action. 

The  mere  catharsis  of  a  vigorous  bodily  regimen  is  indis- 
pensable ;  every  student  of  boys  knows  how  their  "  animal 
spirits,"  -lacking  which  they  would  be  less  than  men, - 

1  See  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Psychology  of  Physical  Education,  Proceedings  X .  E.  A ., 
1910,  p.  297. 


328  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

if  denied  full  and  free  vent  in  abundant  and  exhilarating  exer- 
cise, break  out  in  disorder,  "  rough-house,"  insubordination, 
and  even  rebellion. ,  And  there  is  probably  a  far  more  serious 
evil  that  eludes  most  observers,  in  that  the  less  bold  and 
dynamic  youth  fall  into  secret  vices  that  sap  their  forces  ere 
they  develop ;  against  self-abuse  and  degenerating  vice  in 
general,  the  most  universal  safeguard  is  certainly  a  bodily 
regimen,  vigorous  and  virile  even  to  excess.  A  life  which  sends 
the  lad  to  bed  regularly  and  healthily  tired  but  not  exhausted, 
with  muscles  and  nerves  and  organs  purged  by  abundant 
exercise,  gives  scant  play  to  any  perverted  or  noxious  impulse 
or  habit. 

Moreover,  great  as  is  this  advantage,  it  is  but  the  negative 
side  of  the  benefits  of  proper  physical  regimen ;  the  positive 
results  include  a  just  confidence  in  one's  bodily  powers,  inval- 
uable balance  of  the  psychic  constitution,  endurance,  courage, 
the  physiological  basis  of  optimism.  The  social  values  of 
athletic  sports,  in  their  normal  forms,  are  too  great  to  discuss 
here ;  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  one  of  the  first  duties  of 
curriculum  makers  is  to  study  earnestly  and  without  prej- 
udice the  educative  influence  of  play  and  recreation.  It  is 
passing  strange  that  a  culture  that  claims  descent  from  the 
Greeks  and  professes  sincere  admiration  for  their  achieve- 
ments should  so  completely  despise  the  gymnastic  element 
that  made  good  half  of  their  training  of  the  young.  What 
would  the  Greeks  have  thought  of  a  school  for  adolescents 
that  assigned  either  no  single  instructor  or  at  best  a  meager  one 
or  two  in  a  hundred  to  the  education  through  bodily  exercise  ? 
Yet  that  is  the  status  of  our  high  schools  ;  even  in  a  progressive 
school,  out  of  fifty  teachers  it  is  rare  that  more  than  two  or 
three  are  charged  with  physical  culture.  Too  often  even 
these  are  looked  upon  as  outsiders  or  underlings  by  the 
"  academic  teachers  " ;  almost  universally  they  are  selected 
and  utilized,  not  for  the  true  physical  development  of  the 
whole  group  of  youth  in  the  school,  but  to  plan  and  exe- 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  329 

cute  the  spectacular  exploitation  of  a  few  who  least  need 
their  help.1 

Intellectual  Initiative.  —  On  the  side  of  the  student's  self- 
development  that  the  school  has  emphasized,  the  intellectual, 
the  great  need  is  the  awakening  of  the  student's  own  initiative 
and  energy.  Attention  should  be  fixed  less  upon  externals, 
such  as  the  performance  of  set  tasks  and  the  gaining  of  marks, 
and  more  upon  the  essential  thing  of  the  youth's  sense  of  his 
own  growing  powers  of  thought.2 

Above  all  we  need  to  revise  our  present  system  of  "  passing  " 
and  "  failing,"  by  which  the  individual  of  high  capacity  is 
practically  encouraged  to  loaf  along  at  any  half-speed  that  will 
keep  his  head  above  water  academically.  Each  must  be  in- 
cited constantly  to  do  his  best,  quite  regardless  whether  that 
best  is  marked  "  A  "  or  "  X  "  in  the  school  records.  We 
might  do  worse  than  borrow  a  maxim  from  the  trainer  of 
trotting  horses  "  to  make  the  colt  go  his  pace  for  his  distance  " ; 
as  things  are,  we  virtually  suggest  to  the  fast  colt  to  go  the 
slow  colt's  pace  for  the  slow  colt's  distance.  It  is  ruinous  for 
the  human  colt  to  habituate  himself  to  an  achievement  below 
his  capacity,  no  matter  what  the  achievement  may  be  in  itself, 
for  so  he  tends  to  decrease  his  powers ;  toward  increase  of 
power  there  is  but  one  road,  the  doing  of  one's  present  best, 
nay  more,  one  must  ever  surpass  one's  best,  do  the  impossible, 
rise  to  a  new  level  of  power  and  confidence. 

1  See  the  writer's  The  High  School's  Cure  of  Souls,  Educ.  Rev.,  April,  1908, 
pp.  364-365;  and  Essentials  of  Character,  Macmillan,  pp.  115-116,  98-102. 

2  "As  a  matter  of  fact  the  moral  exercise  of  the  will  is  not  found  in  the  exter- 
nal assumption  of  any  posture,  and  the  formation  of  moral  habits  cannot  be 
identified  with  the  ability  to  show  up  results  at  the  demand  of  another.  .  .  . 
The  question  of  moral  training  has  not  been  touched  until  we  know  what  the 
child  has  been  internally  occupied  with,  what  the  predominating  direction  of  his 
attention,  his  feelings,  his  disposition  has  been  while  engaged  upon  this  task. 
If  the  task  has  appealed  to  him  merely  as  a  task,  it  is  as  certain  psychologically 
as  the  law  of  action  and  reaction  is  physically  that  the  child  is  simply  engaged 
in  acquiring  a  habit  of  divided  attention."     Dewey,  Interest  as  Related  to  Will, 
p.  9. 


330  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Morally  no  less  than  intellectually  it  is  a  sore  point  that  our 
intellectual  culture  fails  signally  to  produce  intellectual  inter- 
ests which  are  will  characteristics  as  well  as  intellectual,  and 
which  are  after  all  the  only  true  results ;  all  else,  —  for  instance, 
any  acquisition  of  information  or  knowledge,  —  being  mere  pre- 
liminary or  instrumental  processes.  It  is  a  moral  loss  quite  as 
much  as  an  intellectual  one  when  the  student  turns  away,  at 
the  end  of  a  course  in  English  or  mathematics  or  science, 
with  a  sigh  of  relief  and  throws  away  his  book  and  his  thoughts 
on  the  subject,  more  than  satisfied  to  say  that  he  has  "  had  "  it. 

This  brings  us  from  another  angle  to  the  same  insistent  but 
ignored  truth,  that  intellectual  results  cannot  be  achieved  with- 
out the  vitalization  of  the  learner's  own  will ;  the  heart  of 
instruction  is  interest,  which  is  the  very  essence  of  the  "  new 
education,"  and  interest  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
enlistment  of  the  learner's  own  will.  The  upward  road  for 
better  moral  training  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  to  better 
thinking  and  more  intellectual  mastery.  The  sooner  both 
secondary  and  college  teaching  take  this  truth  into  their 
reckoning  and  let  it  operate  fully  on  their  methods,  and  upon 
their  curricula,  the  sooner  will  they  approach  the  heights  of 
intellectual  success  they  so  greatly  and  sincerely  desire.1 

Personal  Ideals.  —  The  youth's  problem  of  honor  is  the  de- 
cision of  what  he  will  admit  and  what  he  will  reject  from  his 
innermost  self,  his  code  of  conduct.  What  is  he  to  love  and 
practice,  and  what  is  he  to  hate  and  eschew?  He  is  blessed 
with  abundant  instincts  of  honor ;  chief  among  them  is  loyalty 
to  his  fellows,  especially  when  a  conflict  with  some  adult 
authority  or  power  is  involved.  Another  is  the  ideal  of  cour- 
age and  the  utter  hatred  and  abomination  of  cowardice.  How 
resistless  these  impulses  are  no  words  can  adequately  express ; 
the  whole  soul  and  body  of  the  healthy  and  vigorous  youth 

1  An  interesting  testimony  to  this  is  found  in  the  first  few  paragraphs  of  Dr. 
Eliot's  The  Value  during  Education  of  the  Life-career  Motive.  V.  E.  A. 
Proceedings,  IQIO,  133  ff. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  331 

responds  to  them.  They  are  strong  enough  to  tear  him  from 
school  or  even  home,  to  drag  him  through  danger  and  pain. 
They  are  the  mainsprings  of  that  great  adolescent  ethics  of  the 
race,  chivalry,  and  are  the  promise  in  the  modern  youth  of 
both  the  good  and  the  evil  of  medieval  knighthood.1 

The  fatal  error  in  dealing  with  adolescent  honor,  even  in  its 
most  inconvenient  forms,  is  to  quarrel  with  it ;  the  path  of 
success  is  first  of  all  through  an  understanding  of  it  that  is  both 
clear  and  sympathetic  :  clear  in  seeing  its  confusion  and  nar- 
rowness, sympathetic  in  having  a  warm  and  abiding  sense  of 
its  appeal  and  preciousness  to  the  youth  himself.  Then  comes 
enlightenment ;  the  universal  role  of  thought  must  be  played 
here,  and  the  youth  must  look  out  and  beyond,  must  see  the 
interests  and  welfare  of  all  affected:  first,  those  of  the  "out- 
siders "  from  his  point  of  view,  —  the  teacher,  the  man  whose 
windows  are  broken  or  whose  trees  have  been  robbed ;  too 
often  —  alas,  for  our  sportmanship ! : — the  opposing  athletic 
team,  the  pitcher  trying  to  hold  his  nerve  at  a  crucial  point  or  the 
quarterback  struggling  to  rally  his  demoralized  team.  Then 
he  must,  and  thus  will,  see  the  interests  of  himself  and  his  own 
clique  or  crowd,  in  a  new  and  larger  way.  Thus,  and  thus  only, 
may  the  abundant  and  priceless  energy  of  his  impulses  of 
honor  be  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  larger  and  truer  right. 
But  let  the  teacher  never  doubt  that  in  its  crudest  form  the 
impulse  itself  is  at  bottom  good,  so  good  that  without  its 
aid  there  is  no  possibility  of  the  realization  of  the  best  charac- 
ter in  the  man  that  is  to  grow  out  of  the  boy. 

VOCATION.  —  The  vocation  motive  is  happily  coming  to 
its  own  in  these  days.  We  may  hope  that  the  school  is  soon 
to  perceive  in  a  true  and  profound  way  the  wisdom  of  the 
answer  of  the  old  Spartan  king,  who,  when  asked  what  boys 
should  study  in  school,  answered,  "  I  suppose  that  which  being 

1  For  a  most  interesting  symposium  on  this  subject  see  "Who  Broke  the 
Window"  in  several  numbers  of  the  Outlook  for  1913  and  "Good,  Bad,  and 
'Daddy  George'  "  in  the  Survey,  August  2.  1013,  pp.  565-566. 


332  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

men  they  shall  do."  No  narrow  view  of  this  element  will 
suffice ;  such  views  have  already  deformed  the  practice  of 
some  vocational  schools,  and  repelled  many  earnest  but  con- 
servatively minded  friends  of  education.  We  cannot  accept 
without  scrutiny  the  views  of  the  manufacturer  and  the 
business  man  who  are  mainly  concerned  to  increase  the  num- 
ber and  quality  of  operatives  or  clerks  ;  we  cannot  agree  with 
the  dictum  that  "  A  boy  who  is  to  be  a  carpenter  should  con- 
tinue in  all  stages  of  his  educational  course  to  make  manual 
training  of  this  sort  his  most  important  occupation."  We 
are  here  concerned,  not  with  the  making  of  carpenters,  but  the 
making  of  men..  Hence  we  urge  more  stress  upon  the  voca- 
tional element  and  motive  in  schools  because  it  vitalizes  and 
energizes  the  whole  school  life  of  the  student ;  it  puts  into  his 
"  studies  "  what  in  other  cases  is  found  only  in  his  "  activi- 
ties," —  spontaneous,  self-feeding  interest,  —  and  this  means 
moral  growth  instead  of  atrophy  and  decay.  We  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  a  survey  of  the  educational  field  would 
show  that  the  most  potent  single  force  for  interest  in  secondary 
and  higher  education  even  now  is  the  vocational  motive. 
The  superior  performance  of  professional  students  over 
"  liberal  arts  "  men  is  a  notorious  fact ;  the  vocational  school 
manifests,  even  to  the  casual  observer,  a  warmth  and  person- 
ality of  interest  among  the  students  that  the  general  secondary 
school  cannot  equal. 

To  us  adults  things  must  mean  something  if  they  are  to  gain 
our  attention  and  effort ;  no  less  so  with  children.  One  of  the 
simplest  and  most  immediate  sources  of  meaning  to  the  second- 
ary student  is  relation  to  his  life  work.  He  is  going  to  do  a 
vast  amount  of  thinking  on  this  subject,  whether  or  not  the 
teacher  knows  or  cares.  Before  and  after  leaving  high  school 
he  will  canvass  vocation,  —  not  wisely,  not  broadly,  not  intelli- 
gently ;  to  his  unaided  reflection  it  will  IDC  mainly  a  question 
of  "  making  money  "  ;  even  the  best  of  lads  have  either  little 
or  no  perception  of  the  great  rich  social  aspect  of  any  man's 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  333 

calling.  Here  are  then  two  great  opportunities  of  the  school : 
to  utilize  the  impulse  that  flows  from  the  vocation  motive, 
turning  it  into  channels  of  mental  and  technical  advancement ; 
and  to  enlighten  the  impulse  itself,  helping  the  youth  to  see 
vocation  in  its  bearings  upon  life  as  a  whole,  and  especially  as 
one  of  his  most  important  relations  to  the  great  world  of  human 
life  and  common  welfare.1 

Effect  upon  the  Curriculum.  —  Of  intense  interest  to  every 
high  school  teacher,  and  indeed  to  all  friends  of  education,  is  the 
question  how  this  vocational  principle  is  to  affect  the  present 
curriculum  and  methods  of  the  schools.  We  have  already 
proposed  a  general  principle  by  which  all  school  activities  must 
be  tested :  Do  they  aid  the  pupil  in  grasping  and  solving  his 
problems?  So  far  as  vocation  is  concerned  it  seems  increas- 
ingly sure  that  many  things  now  not  in  the  curriculum  possess 
great  capacity  to  aid  the  educand  in  solving  this  vital,  voca- 
tional problem  and  will  inevitably  demand  and  obtain,  against 
any  resistance  whatsoever,  entrance  into  the  school.  This 
is  true  of  many  industrial  and  technical  activities ;  and  it  is  no 
less  true  of  some  studies,  not  in  themselves  contributing  to 
the  technique  of  any  calling,  but  shedding  light  upon  vocation 
as  a  whole,  and  upon  the  relations  of  vocations  to  each  other 
and  to  economics,  ethics,  politics,  and  any  other  great  aspect 
of  life  in  which  the  student  must  orient  himself.  It  would 
seem  that  the  worker  in  the  field  of  secondary  education  should 
prepare  himself  for  far-reaching  and  radical,  though  gradual, 
changes  in  the  secondary  program  of  studies  in  these  directions. 

Vocational  Guidance.  —  Most  immediately  hopeful  and 
practicable  for  moral  effect  is  the  field  of  vocational  guidance. 
This  need  not  wait  upon  costly  equipment  and  sweeping 
changes  of  personnel  and  methods  :  it  demands  only  the  enlist- 
ment of  the  hearts  and  intelligence  of  considerable  numbers 
of  teachers  and  other  sincere  friends  of  youth.  The  egregious 

1  See  chapter  on  "  Social  and  Economic  Gains  through  Vocational  Guid- 
ance," in  Eloomneld,  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth,  especially  pp.  112-113. 


334  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

blunder  of  letting  our  boys  and  girls  drift  or  be  thrust  into 
callings  without  any  rational  consideration  of  the  questions 
involved  need  not  remain  longer  without  some  remedy.  Few 
possible  educative  methods  are  so  pregnant  with  good  as  this. 
It  does  far  more  than  aid  the  pupil  to  solve  one  of  his  most 
pressing  and  fateful  questions  ;  it  engenders  between  youth  and 
adviser  a  relation  of  sympathy  and  understanding  that  is  the 
best  possible  avenue  of  all  kinds  of  moral  aid  and  enlighten- 
ment. It  provides,  probably,  the  easiest  good  road  to  the  heart 
of  the  educand.  And  it  is  twice  blessed,  —  it  blesses  the 
teacher  who  gives  no  less  than  the  pupil  who  receives.  Few 
things  in  the  high  school  situation  are  more  to  be  desired  than 
the  opening  up  of  paths  of  sympathetic  intimacy  between 
teacher  and  pupil,  along  which  may  pass  freely  the  educative 
benefits  which  now  too  often  lie  choked  up  or  inert  in  the 
teacher's  soul.1 

THE  ZEST  OF  LIFE.  —  We  come  next  to  two  great  neg- 
lected moral  forces,  recreation  and  the  intersexual  nature  and 
life.  In  both  of  these,  happily,  awakening  seems  at  hand. 
Jane  Addams'  Spirit  of  Youth  and  our  City  Streets  is  a 
veritable  challenge  to  all  who  are  concerned  in  the  welfare  of 
young  people  of  both  sexes.  It  is  true  that  it  deals  most 
directly  with  young  people  who  are  not  in  school  or  college : 
yet  the  essential  nature  of  youth  is  the  same  in  both  classes, 
and  it  is  probably  true  of  high  school  boys,  as  Miss  Addams 
says  of  working  youth,  that  "  recreation  is  stronger  than 
vice,  and  recreation  alone  can  stifle  the  lust  for  vice."  Most 
assuredly  the  modern  high  school  needs  to  take  a  page  from  the 
philosophy  of  the  Greeks  and  from  the  educational  practice  of 
the  Greeks  and  readopt  play  and  recreation  as  an  indis- 
pensable and  potent  educative  force.  The  very  exuberance 
of  play  is  proof  enough  of  its  power  to  leave  its  mark  on  the 

1  On  this  whole  problem  see  Eliot,  Value  during  Education  of  Life-career 
Motive,  Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.,  IQIO,  pp.  133  fT. ;  Kerschensteiner,  Education 
for  Citizenship,  Chicago  Commercial  Club,  TQII  ;  Gillette,  Vocational  Guidance, 
Chicago,  1910;  Bloomfiekl,  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth,  Boston,  1911. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  335 

fiber  of  the  organism.  Nowhere  else  does  the  educative  cycle 
run  so  swiftly  and  intensely  through  its  full  course  of  stimulus, 
decision,  and  response.  Nowhere  is  the  "  trace  on  brain  and 
nerve  "  more  certainly  and  deeply  marked.  Profoundly 
formative  recreation  is,  whatever  the  educator  may  do  about 
it :  the  task  that  lies  before  us  is  to  control  its  power  and  make 
it  educative.  This  is,  as  we  have  already  suggested,  the 
great,  almost  the  only  real  problem  in  school  athletics. 

The  social  aspects  of  recreation  extend  far  beyond  the  school, 
and  responsibility  for  them  must  be  borne  primarily  and  ulti- 
mately by  the  home.  Yet  we  may  well  inquire  whether  the 
school  has  not  a  part  to  play.  It  has  taken  no  small  hand  in 
settling  the  school  fraternity  matter :  possibly  with  a  little 
too  much  regard  for  the  institutional  welfare  of  the  school 
itself,  and  rather  too  little  consideration  of  the  instincts  and 
nature  of  the  young  people  themselves.  We  suggest  two 
other  means  at  its  disposal.  The  first  is  closer  cooperation 
with  the  home  ;  here  we  are  met  at  once  with  the  complaint  of 
lack  of  time  for  such  relations,  especially  in  our  huge  and 
crowded  city  schools,  —  where  it  is  perhaps  most  needed. 
The  answer  is  not  so  impossible  as  it  may  seem,  —  sacrifice 
something  else ;  let  the  teacher  be  authorized,  nay  instructed, 
to  throw  quiz  or  exercise  papers  into  the  waste  basket  any  time, 
if  needed,  to  allow  time  to  talk  with  parents  about  the  welfare 
of  their  children.  It  is  high  time  that  the  secondary  teacher 
be  freed  from  the  academic  strait-jacket  of  prescriptions  and 
requirements  of  laborious  detail,  of  endless  reading  of  papers, 
and  become  a  teacher  and  friend,  no  longer  a  mere  quizmaster 
and  indexer  of  grades.  How  can  we  hope  to  help  the  growing 
boy  and  girl  when  their  two  chief  educators  —  parent  and 
teacher  —  do  not  even  know  each  other  by  sight,  and  when 
home  and  school  are  mutually  ignorant  of  each  other's  aims, 
ideals,  methods,  and  attitudes? 

It  is  hard  to  understand  the  slowness  of  school  authorities  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  parents'  meeting  to  aid  in  this  respect. 


336  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Difficulties  and  some  risks  there  certainly  are  in  the  way  of 
parent  meetings,  but  so  there  are  in  any  really  worth  while 
action.  They  can  be  and  are  being  overcome.  The  problem 
of  social  life  and  recreation  will  be  solved  only  through  joint 
and  harmonious  action  of  school  and  home. 

MUTUAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  SEXES.  —  Sex  educa- 
tion is  properly  a  chapter  by  itself  in  educational  progress: 
something  must  be  said  of  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  moral 
training.  There  are  two  great  motives  for  the  control  of  sex 
life  by  which  the  lower  or  physiological  impulse  is  regulated  by 
the  higher  human  elements.  The  first  is  the  desire  for  individ- 
ual strength  and  perfection,  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
adolescent  boy,  the  intense  ambition  to  be  virile,  athletic, 
well  grown,  to  surpass  in  bodily  prowess.  This  impulse,  and 
the  actual  physical  catharsis  of  an  athletic  regimen,  are  the 
great  bulwark  against  all  forms  of  secret  vice.  But  these  are 
inadequate,  as  are  all  individualistic  motives  in  every  field  of 
morality :  above  and  beyond  it  comes  the  ideal  of  personal 
honor,  of  chivalry,  merging  into  the  potent  impulses  of  mar- 
riage and  family.  Marriage  and  parenthood  are  the  evolution- 
ary and  racial  solution  and  elevation  of  sex,  and  must  be  so  for 
the  individual.  Let  this  expectation  of  being  a  husband  and 
a  father  be  a  part  of  the  conscious  thought  of  youth,  mingling 
in  his  mind  with  his  hopes  and  ambitions  to  be  a  worth-while 
in  other  fields,  such  as  economic  success  and  civic  duty. 

Honor  and  Ideals.  —  The  thing  needed  is  an  attitude  to- 
ward the  other  sex  that  can  bear  scrutiny :  there  are  ways  of 
appeal  that  no  healthy  boy  can  resist,  —  "  It  should  be  im- 
pressed on  every  boy  that  every  girl  is  somebody's  sister,  and 
that  it  is  his  sacred  duty  to  afford  her  the  same  respect  and 
protection  which  he  would  expect  from  another  boy  to  his 
sister."  *  Charles  Wagner  puts  irresistibly  the  course  of 
thinking  for  the  young  man  which  leads  him  to  the  only  possi- 
ble conclusion  :  "  The  rule  of  conduct  here  is  chastity.  Every 
1  The  Survey,  Nov.  16,  1911,  p.  193. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  337 

infraction  is  a  sin.  Though  this  law  may  seem  difficult  and 
severe  it  is  the  only  safe  one.  Morality  without  it  is  rubbish."  1 

The  promise  and  potency  of  these  high  ideals  is  found  in  a 
field  despised  and  neglected  by  the  educator,  and  arousing  in 
the  rest  of  the  adult  world  mainly  the  laughter  of  fools  —  the 
early  love  of  the  adolescent,  perhaps  the  purest  and  most 
ethereal  experience,  next  to  motherhood,  that  most  human  be- 
ings ever  experience.  No  description  can  overstate  its  charms  : 
"  It  is  a  morning  land  full  of  bursting  flowers,  bathed  in  the 
sunshine  and  the  dew,  a  pure  and  virgin  soil  where  no  foot  has 
trod,  where  no  dust  and  stain  have  come.  It  is  a  land  where 
love  is  born  amid  the  friendships,  the  smiles,  the  sports  of 
youth.  ...  It  lies  at  the  threshold  of  our  life,  like  a  radiant 
paradise  where  the  joy  of  living,  of  seeing,  of  worshipping 
reverently  from  afar,  and  oftenest  without  telling  our  love, 
suffices  us.  We  have  closed  this  paradise.  We  must  reopen 
it  and  teach  our  youth  to  desire  it." 

Just  how  this  great  force  is  to  be  utilized  is  certainly  far 
from  clear :  but  it  is  one  of  the  most  undeniable  problems  of 
education,  especially  in  the  secondary  period,  which  usually 
contains  the  climacteric  of  adolescent  love.  Already  many 
individual  cases  have  operated  for  good,  and  not  a  few  for 
injury  in  actual  school  work ;  many  a  high  school  teacher  has 
known  of  boys  awakened  to  new  interest  and  energy  by  falling 
in  love  with  some  good  girl  who  perhaps  was  inclined  to  take 
her  studies  seriously. 

A  Gap  in  the  Curriculum.  —  Spencer  long  ago  held  up  to 
sarcastic  comment  the  failure  of  the  school  to  make  any  prep- 
aration for  the  business  that  nine  tenths  of  the  educands  must 
some  day  engage  in,  —  the  rearing  of  a  family.  The  curriculum, 
he  says,  gives  the  impression  of  having  been  planned  for  some 
celibate  order,  rather  than  for  the  common  run  of  men  and 
women.  The  moral  educator  must  recognize  that  to  turn  out 
good  men  we  must  needs  form  good  fathers.  Some  day  we  may 

1  Youth,  p.  250.  2  Youth,  p.  258. 

z 


338  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

hope  for  an  education  that  will  nurture  the  impulses  of  sex  and 
love  into  their  normal  fruition  in  inspired  and  intelligent 
parenthood  and  family  life.  At  present,  the  most  that  we  do 
is  to  curse  the  ignorance  and  neglect  of  the  average  parent, 
which  is,  after  all,  merely  the  natural  result  of  education  as  it  is. 

WAYS   AND   MEANS 

The  crucial  test  of  all  methods  of  moral  training  is  clear 
from  all  our  preceding  consideration  :  whatever  awakens  and 
exercises  the  student's  own  will  cultivates  his  character.  The 
best  friend  of  a  youth  is  he  who  makes  him  do  most.  But  the 
doing  must  be  of  the  will  and  not  merely  of  legs  and  hands. 
The  actual  instruments  of  training  in  the  school  have  been 
stated  by  Professor  Dewey  as  (i)  the  life  of  the  school  as  a 
social  institution  in  itself;  (2)  methods  of  learning  and  doing 
work  ;  (3)  the  school  studies  or  curriculum.1  As  things  are,  it 
is  well  to  insert  a  fourth  division,  school  government.  Let  us 
consider  them  in  this  order. 

SCHOOL  LIFE.  —  "  The  moral  life,"  it  has  been  said,  "  is 
the  response  that  the  individual  makes  to  the  social  order  in 
which  he  lives."  In  proportion  as  the  school  hours  become 
part  and  parcel  of  the  main  flow  of  the  student's  spiritual 
existence  do  they  contribute  to  his  moral  growth.  The  great 
task  for  the  secondary  school  with  respect  to  its  "  life,"  is  to 
inform  all  the  activities,  study,  recreation,  athletics,  social 
affairs,  with  a  wholesome  morale,  so  that  in  them  all  the  will 
of  the  youth  is  acting  as  we  desire  it  to  act  in  his  mature  life. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  one  of  the  first  requisites  here  is  the 
cordial  and  intimate  participation  of  teachers  in  the  life  of  the 
school.  Education,  as  Professor  Palmer  has  so  well  said,  is  a 
"  dependent  fellowship  "  in  which  the  elder  and  wiser  en- 
lightens and  aids  the  younger.  Boys  and  girls  need  such  help 
quite  as  much  in  their  recreation  and  diversions,  their  athletics, 

1  Dewey,  Ethical  Principles  underlying  Education,  p.  26. 


Moral  and  Religious  Edtication  339 

social  functions,  journalism,  as  in  algebra  and  chemistry. 
The  modern  secondary  teacher  is  tempted,  almost  compelled, 
to  content  himself  with  being  a  philosopher  to  his  pupils  and 
never  attaining  his  more  influential  relation  of  guide  and  friend. 
But  that  the  relation  is  possible  is  proved  by  the  few  who  do 
attain  it  in  high  measure,  —  the  teacher  to  whom  the  students 
come  for  counsel  about  their  dances,  their  school  paper,  and 
all  the  miscellaneous  quasi-personal  details  of  life  outside  of  the 
curriculum. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  huge  high  schools  toward  which 
we  are  so  rapidly  tending  are  utterly  unfavorable  to  such  moral 
relations ;  the  testimony  of  high  school  students  themselves 
indicates  that  a  human  companionship  between  teacher  and 
students  is  not  uncommon  in  the  small  town  or  rural  school 
but  almost  unknown  in  the  great  metropolitan  institution.1 

SCHOOL  GOVERNMENT.  —  Student  self-government  is 
nowadays  a  much  mooted  subject ;  with  many  it  is  a  phrase 
to  conjure  with,  to  others  it  is  a  fad  with  which  innovators 
entertain  themselves.  That  the  student  should  wisely 
govern  himself  is  certainly  the  supreme  end  of  his  education ; 
whatever  causes  him  to  govern  his  own  conduct  in  school 
trains  him  toward  this  end.  The  most  advanced  theory,  by 
no  means  unsupported  by  practical  experience,  is  that  the  body 
of  pupils  should  come  to  feel  thoroughly  responsible  for  the 
social  order  of  the  school.  This  is  actually  realized  in  higher 
education  in  at  least  one  conspicuous  case ;  many  secondary 
and  even  elementary  schools  at  least  approximate  this  condi- 
tion. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  moral  training,  to  which  we  are 
here  confined,  two  or  three  things  may  be  said  as  to  the  present 
situation  :  first,  no  one  should  pretend,  and  in  the  successful 
cases  no  one  does  pretend,  that  the  students  wield  any  final 
authority ;  no  one  knows  better  than  the  students  that  the 
legally  constituted  authorities  cannot,  if  they  would,  abdicate 
1  School  Review,  December,  1912,  pp.  657-659,  663. 


34-O  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

their  posts  or  shuffle  off  their  responsibility.  But  the  students 
are  perfectly  satisfied  to  be  allowed  to  conduct  their  affairs, 
subject  to  revision  by  the  faculty;  and  experience  shows 
abundantly  that  under  right  conditions  they  can  and  do  get 
along  for  indefinite  periods,  dealing  with  various  and  difficult 
matters,  without  needing  any  official  revision  from  above. 

On  the  other  hand,  any  one  who  expects  such  a  system  to 
create  itself  in  a  high  school,  or  run  after  it  is  created  without 
most  earnest  and  vigilant  care,  is  likely  to  suffer  a  rude  dis- 
enchantment. But  the  work  to  be  done  is  not  mechanical  or 
routine,  it  is  spiritual,  communicative,  intimate ;  its  great 
purpose  is  to  awaken  in  the  minds  of  the  youth  the  ambition  to 
be  autonomous ;  and  enlighten  them  as  to  the  true  nature  of 
the  end  and  the  effective  means  of  attaining  it.  Indeed  the 
"  system  "  is  the  least  important  part ;  many  a  school  has 
genuine  student  self-government,  in  the  wills  of  individuals  and 
in  the  body  politic,  without  any  machinery ;  and  the  finest 
system  might  conceivably  lack  the  true  spirit  and  so  be  futile. 

One  practically  demonstrated  means  toward  these  ends  is 
the  maintenance  of  joint  boards  or  committees  composed  of 
teachers  representing  the  faculty  and  students  elected  by  the 
whole  school  or  sections  of  it.1  These  boards  should  be  given 
real  things  to  do  and  real  powers.  They  constitute  an  invalu- 
able channel  of  intercommunication  between  faculty  and 
students,  the  value  of  which  is  realized  when  we  consider  the 
fact  that  the  most  serious  disaffections  arise  in  school  life  as 
elsewhere  through  misunderstanding. 

Actual  experience  with  any  healthy  form  of  student  par- 
ticipation in  government  will  strengthen  the  teacher's  indis- 
pensable faith  in  the  soundness  of  the  real  heart  of  youth  in  all 
vital  matters.  In  fact,  the  student  council  or  court  not  seldom 
takes  so  ideal  and  rigoristic  a  view  of  conduct  as  to  call  for 
some  interposition  of  clemency  from  the  faculty.  The  great 

1  See  for  example  the  Board  of  Athletics  and  the  Council  at  Bradley  Poly- 
technic Institute,  Peoria,  Illinois  (described  in  catalogue,  q.v.). 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  341 

moral  value  of  all  plans  of  real  student  control  is  in  their  power 
to  call  forth  and  exercise  the  social  and  ethical  will  and  intelli- 
gence of  all  concerned. 

SCHOOL     WORK.  —  The    most     effective     educator  - 
though  we  may  have  to  ask  sometimes  to  what  good  end  ?  - 
is  the  athletic  coach ;  for  he  spurs  and  goads  his  charges  with 
the  discovery,  indeed  the  creation,  of  new  powers  in  themselves. 
It  might  be  well  for  the  academic  instructors  to  go  out  and  see 
the  football  practice,  not  with  any  care  as  to  the  next  match 
game,  but  to  see  how  the  lads  add  to  their  power  and  skill  by 
outdoing  their  previous  possibilities. 

It  is  the  immense  educative  value  of  industry,  of  application, 
of  relentless  persistence,  in  brief,  of  every  form  of  hard  work, 
that  has  led  to  the  almost  universal  faith  in  "  disciplinary  "  stud- 
ies and  that  probably  accounts  for  much  that  is  attributed  to 
"  formal  training."  Many  wise  educators  have  quoted  approv- 
ingly that  old  saying  that "  the  best  thing  in  education  is  doing 
the  thing  you  don't  want  to  do  at  the  time  when  you  don't  want 
to  do  it."  The  truth  is — paradoxical  only  in  form  and  because 
of  the  poverty  of  words  —  that  real  power  is  gained  only 
through  wanting  to  do  the  thing  you  don't  want  to  do,  and 
doing  it  because  the  "don't  want"  is  superficial  and  tempo- 
rary, while  the  "  want  "  is  essential  and  permanent. 

This  is  the  reconciliation  of  interest  and  effort ;  and  every 
one  knows  that  the  maximum  of  endeavor  is  attained,  not 
through  external  compulsion,  but  through  desire  and  ambition 
from  within. 

Yet  it  is  true  that  few  things  are  more  needed  in  the  American 
school,  in  all  grades,  than  more  effort  and  application,  more 
thoroughness  and  mastery.  The  youth  must  learn  that 
educationally  also  "  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  suffereth  violence, 
and  the  violent  —  that  is,  the  energetic  and  resolute  —  take  it 
by  force." 

When  we  ask  then  how  the  young  people  shall  work  in  high 
school,  we  may  answer,  first,  hard,  very  hard ;  this  is  the 


34 2  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

gymnastic  of  the  mind,  the  only  way  leading  to  the  powers  of 
concentration  and  mastery.  But  also  successfully  and  joy- 
fully ;  learning  to  fail,  so  common  now,  must  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  To  this  end  they  must  work  intelligently,  with 
some  sense  of  purpose  and  hope  of  reward.  Finally,  they  must 
work  socially,  in  school,  as  in  life ;  here  is  one  of  the  easiest 
routes  of  advance,  because  the  present  practice  is  so  crudely 
individualistic.  The  isolation  of  the  pupil  in  school  has  long 
been  held  up  to  censure,  but  yields  very  slowly  to  improve- 
ment. To  help  each  other,  the  chief  virtue  of  real  life,  is  a 
misdemeanor  in  school.  Doubtless  there  are  causes  for  this 
insistence  upon  individual  work ;  no  one  wants  John  to  do 
James'  work ;  that  is  no  cooperation  at  all ;  what  we  do 
want  and  must  have  is  a  kind  of  work  in  which  each  can  do 
his  own  part,  in  contact  and  relation  with  all  the  rest.  Only 
thus  can  the  young  worker  learn  the  indispensable  virtues  of 
adjustment,  consideration,  practical  coordination ;  it  is  time 
the  school  did  its  share  in  the  production  of  these  traits. 

STUDIES.  —  After  all,  as  things  are,  and  as  they  are  likely 
to  be  for  some  time  to  come,  the  bulk  of  the  school's  time  and 
attention  is  given  to  the  curriculum.  All  past  ages  have  had 
great  faith  in  the  moral  power  of  studies :  abeunt  studio,  in 
mores  said  the  Roman  writer,  and  Bacon  quotes  the  saying 
approvingly ; '  but  nowadays  the  educational  world  is  full  of 
skepticism  concerning  the  effect  of  the  curriculum  on  charac- 
ter. We  have  space  for  very  brief  discussion.  First,  let  us  be 
quite  clear  that  the  studia  of  the  Latin  proverb  are  not  mere 
formal  branches  of  learning,  subjects  in  the  school  program ; 
the  word  study,  which  Bacon  and  Milton  use  in  its  original 
sense,  has  fallen  from  its  high  estate  ;  a  study,  truly  speaking, 
is  an  earnest  pursuit,  a  zealous  and  devoted  occupation  of  the 
mind  ;  Milton  speaks  of  "  the  study  of  learning  "  as  we  would 
say  the  love  of  learning.  It  is  in  this  that  the  truth  of  the 
saying  lies,  for  the  basic  fact  of  the  formation  of  character  is 
just  this:  that  our  earnest  pursuits  pass  over  into  habit  and 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  343 

attitude  and  so  form  the  very  essence  of  our  morals.  This 
then  is  nothing  more  than  a  reiteration  of  what  was  said  in  the 
preceding  paragraph  on  how  pupils  should  work,  —  hard, 
resolutely,  joyfully.  Let  us  be  sure  that  no  other  kind  of 
"  study  "  has  any  great  chance  of  passing  into  morals. 

Moral  Values.  —  Having  agreed  in  great  measure  with  the 
disciplinarians  on  the  importance  of  how  children  study,  we 
differ  absolutely  with  those  who  belittle  the  question  of  what 
they  shall  study.  The  moral  and  in  general  the  practical 
value  of  studies  varies  enormously,  depending  upon  the 
directness  of  their  application  to  the  life  that  the  adult  is  to 
lead.  The  secondary  course  stands  in  need  of  merciless  scru- 
tiny and  appraisal  in  this  respect.  Let  us  follow  Plato's 
example,  who,  disregarding  even  the  most  sacred  traditions, 
chooses  and  rejects  from  every  source,  not  excepting  Homer 
himself,  according  as  the  subject  matter  fosters  virtue  or  its 
opposite. 

Two  great  fields  at  once  present  themselves  as  peculiarly 
ethical :  history  and  literature.  These  both  deal  direct  with 
human  life ;  they  are  the  humanities,  and  as  such  must  con- 
stitute the  chief  part  of  the  moral  studies.  With  history  must 
be  included  the  study  of  the  present  as  well  as  the  past ;  also 
the  related  sciences  of  economics,  politics,  and  ethics,  —  all  in 
so  far  as  they  can  be  dealt  with  in  the  secondary  period;  and 
the  elements  of  all  can  be  so  used.  Literature  we  include 
without  regard  to  the  language  in  which  it  is  written  or  read ; 
hence  much  that  is  now  set  down  as  language  study  —  which 
is  something  utterly  different  —  is  here  included.  In  other 
words,  this  is  really  the  question  of  the  classics,  without  which, 
rightly  understood,  there  can  be  no  liberal  education,  as  has 
been  so  often  and  so  warmly  declared. 

The  Classics.  —  As  to  the  classics  themselves,  the  humani- 
ties, Milton  forever  voiced  the  view  of  their  precious  power  that 
has  been  the  spring  of  all  the  passionate  devotion  which  they 
have  excited  from  the  days  of  the  revival  of  learning  until  now  ; 


344  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

through  them,  says  he,  in  his  Tractate,  the  boys  are  to  "  be 
inflamed  with  the  study  of  learning  and  the  admiration  of 
virtue,  stirred  up  with  high  hopes  of  living  to  be  brave  men 
and  worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God  and  famous  to  all  ages," 
and  more  to  the  same  inspiring  effect.  This  was  the  view  of 
Vittorino  and  Erasmus  and  Ascham  before  Milton's  day, 
and  of  Arnold  and  Thring  since.  On  such  a  view  it  is  easy  to 
justify  the  great  space  in  the  curriculum  given  historically  to  the 
classics.  But  on  such  a  view  the  teacher  of  the  classics  — 
in  whatsoever  language,  Greek  or  German  or  mother  tongue  — 
must  be  mainly  not  an  instructor  in  language  but  an  inter- 
preter of  man  and  his  life,  as  bodied  forth  in  the  literature  in 
hand.  This  is  humanism,  and  such  a  study  as  this  does  most 
truly  pass  into  character.  How  far,  in  the  opinion  of  at  least 
one  expert,  we  are  from  this  lofty  ideal,  may  be  read  in  Gayley's 
Idols  of  Education  (pp.  108  ff.  and  passim}. 

Heroes.  —  We  have  almost  forgotten  in  these  days  the  true 
educative  use  of  great  men,  so  well  known  to  earlier  times  ;  the 
figures  of  our  own  national  heroes  are  almost  unknown  in  their 
true  form  to  the  vast  majority  of  our  people.  By  actual  test 
college  students  are  quite  ignorant  of  the  essential  facts 
in  the  life  of  Lincoln,  and  could  give  no  sort  of  adequate 
reason  for  our  placing  him  at  the  top  of  our  list  of  great  Ameri- 
cans. The  truth  is  that  the  life  and  character  of  Lincoln  form 
one  of  the  most  potent  educative  instruments  at  our  hand,  in 
the  vital  task  of  perpetuating  and  elevating  ideals  of  genuine 
Americanism.  But  our  young  people  must  know  him  truly 
and  intimately ;  as  it  is  they  have  a  few  scraps  of  information 
and  error  mixed  and  floating  about  in  their  minds  to  no  spirit- 
ual purpose. 

Let  room  be  made  in  the  course  for  more  history,  especially 
of  our  own  country ;   and  let  room  be  made  in  the  history,  - 
by  omitting  great  masses  of  material  now  learned  only  to  be 
immediately  forgotten,  —  for  extended  and  inspiring  contact 
with    great    figures ;    besides    our    own    great,  —  Columbus, 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  345 

Washington,  Lincoln,  and  a  few  others,  —  there  should  be  an 
acquaintance  with  the  viri  mundi,  the  supremely  great  of  all 
ages  and  races,  Moses,  Socrates,  Pericles,  Regulus,  Alfred  the 
Great,  Charlemagne,  Cavour.  These  happen  to  be  rulers 
and  statesmen,  but  there  should  also  be  scientists  like  Darwin, 
inventors  like  Palissy,  reformers  like  Luther,  men  who  have 
"  enlarged  the  known  powers  of  man  "  in  any  field,  and,  above 
all,  who  have  greatly  served. 

The  true  Shekinah,  some  one  has  said,  is  Man  :  all  ideals  of 
life  and  conduct,  all  ethical  truths,  are  seen  perfectly  only  when 
embodied  in  man  himself ;  this  is  the  principle  of  incarnation, 
of  the  revelation  of  God  in  man,  of  the  Divine  Word  made 
flesh.  Educationally,  this  principle  is  doubly  potent,  for  the 
human  figure  has  power  to  fascinate  the  attention  and  enchain 
the  heart  of  youth ;  so  personalities  carry  at  once  the  content 
and  the  enforcement  of  moral  truth.  The  high  school  period 
is  the  last  chance  for  such  spiritual  effects,  and  probably  the 
best ;  it  is  a  valley  of  decision  with  respect  to  ideals  and  prin- 
ciples ;  the  elementary  pupil  lacks  the  breadth  of  mental 
horizon  to  enable  him  either  to  comprehend  or  feel  the  essen- 
tial greatness  of  most  educative  figures ;  the  young  man  be- 
yond the  high  school  age,  whether  in  college  or  in  life,  has  closed 
most  of  the  questions  involved,  and  is  little  affected  by  the  in- 
fluence of  ideal  personalities.  This  is  the  opportunity  and  the 
responsibility  of  the  secondary  period. 

The  New  Order.  —  But  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  new 
humanities  :  the  youth  of  to-day  are  looking  out  on  a  new  world, 
with  economic,  industrial,  political,  social  ideals  and  attitudes 
that  were  only  vaguely  dreamed  of  until  practically  our  own 
day.  It  is  a  world  so  full  of  threat  and  promise  that  hope 
fights  with  despair  in  the  minds  of  men.  Some  one  must  think 
out  the  solutions  of  these  momentous  problems  ;  intelligence  is 
the  only  possible  safeguard  against  internecine  strife.  Now 
the  high  school  occupies  a  unique  position  and  bears  a  weighty 
responsibility,  for  out  of  its  small  selected  group  must  inevita- 


346  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

bly  come  in  the  main  such  leadership  as  the  future  may  hope 
to  enjoy.  Leadership  rests  upon  two  great  qualities,  spon- 
taneity and  initiative,  —  to  the  culture  of  which  most  of  the 
earlier  part  of  this  chapter  has  been  given  — and  power  to  think 
correctly.  This  is  the  imperative  call  for  the  social  studies  in 
the  high  school,  and  that  in  the  most  practical  way.  The 
abstract  theory  of  ethics  and  economics  may  well  wait  for  the 
college  and  university,  but  clear  and  sound  notions  of  certain 
elements  that  pervade  ordinary  adult  life,  in  business,  in 
society,  in  civic  duty,  in  avocation,  should  be  opened  up  to 
every  young  person  in  high  school.  The  secondary  school  is 
waiting  for  a  Giddings,  or  a  Sumner,  with  the  admirable  art  of 
leading  the  minds  of  early  adolescents  into  true  views  of  these 
questions  that  they  must  so  soon  settle  at  least  in  practice. 
What  is  money?  What  are  labor  and  capital?  What  do 
luxury,  waste,  unemployment,  crime,  vice,  mean  for  the  lives  of 
men  and  women  and  children  ?  Above  all,  what  are  the  new 
hopes  of  our  day  and  generation,  the  charity  that  revives  the 
spirit  and  rehabilitates  the  will,  the  physician's  art  that  puts 
prevention  before  cure  and  views  its  profession  as  social  serv- 
ice ;  the  new  patriotism  that  works  in  peace  as  well  as  war, 
pays  its  taxes,  casts  a  well-considered  and  broad-hearted  vote  ; 
the  new  jurisprudence  and  penology  that  seek  to  reform  the 
culprit  rather  than  to  avenge  the  crime.  All  this  is  most 
congenial  to  the  new  vocational  motive  already  discussed ; 
the  two  fields  complement  each  other,  the  vocation  motive 
reenforcing  interest  in  the  social  studies,  and  the  social  ideal 
illuminating  and  elevating  the  vocational  concept. 

Moral  Idealism.  —  The  more  distinctly  ethical  aspect  of 
these  social  studies  is  the  extension  of  the  radius  of  altruism 
in  the  minds  of  the  adolescent  youth.  "  Who  is  my  neigh- 
bor "  is  the  insistent  practical  question  in  morals;  in  the 
abstract  any  one  agrees  that  we  should  love  each  other,  but 
most  of  us  find  that  our  charity  not  only  begins  at  home,  but 
never  gets  far  away  from  its  center.  The  broadening  of 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  347 

knowledge  has  little  value,  at  least  so  far  as  conduct  is  con- 
cerned, unless  sympathy  also  spreads.  This  is  the  chief 
fault  with  our  intellectualized  instruction  in  history,  literature, 
economics,  civics,  and  the  like.  The  true  maxim  of  humanism 
is  the  noble  dictum,  "  Nihil  humani  mihi  alienum  est,"  —but 
things  human  are  apprehended  not  by  the  understanding 
alone,  but  also  by  the  heart.  Humane  studies  may  be  quite 
dehumanized  either  by  intellectual  abstraction  or  by  spiritual 
indifference,  and  may  then  become  rather  immoral  by  accus- 
toming the  youth  to  look  with  untouched  heart  upon  ideas 
and  images  that  ought  to  arouse  the  emotions  of  any  true  man. 
"  Unless  youth  be  golden,"  says  Jean  Paul,  "  age  will  be 
but  dross."  There  is  evidence  of  the  need  and  approach  of  a 
revival  of  the  spiritual  element  in  secondary  education,  the 
quality  that  gave  power  to  the  teaching  of  Arnold  and  Thring 
and  far-off  Vittorino.  "  Neither  young  nor  old,"  says  Presi- 
dent Hall,  in  his  Educational  Problems,  "  should  lose  the  ancient 
vision  that  has  inspired  so  many  of  the  prophets,  saints,  and 
apostles  of  righteousness,  —  of  some  ideal  state,  common- 
wealth, or  millennium,  city  or  kingdom  of  God,  Utopia,  etc., 
where  most  ethical  characters  and  organizations  are  found.  In 
the  painful  struggle  for  slight,  gradual  amelioration  of  present 
evils,  we  should  keep  some  dream  chamber  in  our  many  man- 
sioned  soul,  where  we  can  occasionally  retire  and  revel  in  the 
imaginations  of  perfection,  and  hearten  ourselves  by  yielding 
to  the  fancy  of  all  good  wishes  fulfilled  and  all  high  ideals 
realized." 

RELIGION 

THE  SECULAR  SCHOOL.  —  The  outward  forms  of  reli- 
gion which  but  recently  were  a  part  of  all  school  life  have 
practically  passed  away  from  the  public  high  schools  of  the 
United  States.  The  great  majority  of  high  school  students 
never  hear  the  Bible  read  nor  words  of  prayer  uttered  nor  any 
religious  instruction  or  exhortation  in  school.  The  history  of 


348  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

this  secularization  of  the  school  has  never  been  adequately 
written.  It  is  certainly  part  and  parcel  of  a  sweeping  change 
in  the  great  field  of  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  our  people, 
and  indeed  of  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  sanctions  of  the 
moral  life  in  the  present  age  are  more  social  than  supernatural. 
The  great  appeal  is  to  human  welfare  and  hence  to  social 
justice.  This  motive  in  an  extreme  form  becomes  Socialism, 
which  is  a  religion  to  most  of  its  adherents. 

But  while  the  change  is  so  widespread  and  pervasive  as  to  be 
well-nigh  universal,  it  is  not  certain  that  it  is  so  profound  and 
fundamental  as  might  be  implied  by  the  terms  in  which  it  is 
stated.  History,  in  Goethe's  figure,  "  stands  at  the  roaring 
loom  of  time  and  weaves  for  God  the  garment  that  we  see  him 
by."  May  not  social  justice  and  human  good  also  be  the 
visible  manifestation  of  the  Divine  ? 

REACTION.  —  Moreover,  there  are  some  signs  that  opinion 
is  swinging  back  somewhat  from  the  extreme  of  secularity.  The 
charge  sometimes  made  by  overzealous  religionists  that  the 
schools  are  "  Godless  "  has  always  been  warmly  resented  by 
most  of  our  people  and  practically  all  of  the  teachers.  "  Shall 
we  have  Godless  schools?  "  asks  a  metropolitan  daily.  "  Not 
a  family  in  the  community  would  vote  that  we  should.  .  .  . 
Who  is  it  objects  to  the  reading  of  a  psalm  and  the  saying 
of  the  Lord's  prayer?  Is  it  conceivable  that  the  objection 
which  may  be  expected  to  so  simple  a  form  of  religious  obser- 
vance as  this  shall  counterweigh  the  inculcation  of  religious 
reverence  ?  Without  regard  for  creed,  there  is  surely  a  place 
for  God  in  the  schools  to  which  we  send  the  children." 

At  least  one  state  has  adopted  an  official  syllabus  of  Bible 
study  for  use  in  its  high  schools  ;  *  and  requests  for  the  syllabus 
have  come  from  every  state  in  the  union.  In  one  large  public 
high  school  an  elective  course  in  the  Old  Testament  scriptures 
was  given  for  eight  years  without  arousing  the  slightest  objec- 
tion and  with  gratifying  results  in  many  ways.2 

1  North  Dakota.  2  See  School  Review,  April,  1913,  pp.  246-249. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  349 

THE  LETTER  AND  THE  SPIRIT.  —  The  greatest  danger 
in  the  secular  school  is  not  the  loss  of  the  theological  or 
ecclesiastical  content  of  the  traditional  religious  instruction, 
but  the  failure  to  learn  to  think  of  the  world  religiously,  that 
is,  profoundly  and  humanly.  Here  is  found  the  justification  of 
the  paramount  place  given  to  religion  in  education  by  educa- 
tors like  Arnold  of  Rugby,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  in  all 
periods.  True,  attention  is  too  often  placed  upon  externalities, 
-  religious  exercises,  scripture,  church  attendance,  and  the 
like.  These  externalities  are  the  field  of  infinite  divergence  and 
antagonism,  and  this  has  led  to  the  elimination  of  religion  in 
this  sense  from  the  public  schools.  We  are  just  detecting  our- 
selves in  the  act  of  rejecting  the  essence  along  with  the  super- 
ficial, or  to  use  the  homely  German  phrase,  we  are  in  danger  of 
"  throwing  out  the  child  with  the  bath  water." 

Hence  the  first  and  most  general  task  of  the  high  school, 
and  the  secondary  teacher,  in  this  respect,  is  to  lead  youth  not 
only  to  think  all  things  in  their  individual  clearness  and  their 
immediate  relations,  —  which  is  scien.ce,  —  but  also  to  get  a 
vision  of  the  wholeness  of  the  world  and  of  life,  and  the  radia- 
tions of  cause  and  effect  out  to  their  remote  bearings  in  both 
space  and  time ;  and  finally  to  feel  that  all  things  get  their 
meaning  and  value  from  their  relation  to  the  life  of  mankind, 
with  all  its  possibilities,  both  tragic  and  glorious. 

Against  such  thinking  there  is  no  law,  nor  any  voice  of  pro- 
test. Young  people  of  high  school  age  eagerly  follow  the 
teacher  who  leads  them  in  these  directions,  and  cherish  the 
memory  of  such  teachers  above  all  others.  But  the  method  is 
all  important :  dictation  and  coercion  are  worse  than  useless ; 
learning  by  rote  is  futile ;  here,  more  than  anywhere  else,  the 
teacher's  role  is  stimulus  and  guidance ;  the  student  must 
think  himself  out ;  the  only  effective  compulsion  is  the  force 
of  truth  and  reason.  But  the  ancient  sage  at  least  had 
boundless  faith  in  the  spiritual  efficacy  of  such  a  method 
when  he  wrote  "  '  Come  let  us  reason  together,'  saith  the 


35O  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Lord,  '  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white 
as  wool.' ' 

MEANS.  —  Certainly  there  are  means  peculiarly  fitted  to 
these  ends.  The  Bible  will  usually  be  recognized  as  the  su- 
preme expression  of  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  the  past. 
References  made  earlier  in  this  section  show  that  the  way  is 
probably  opening  for  a  renewed  attention  to  the  scriptures, 
at  least  the  Old  Testament,  in  the  schools.  Natural  science 
no  longer  boasts  of  having  "  abolished  mysteries  "  and  is  in 
far  less  sharp  antithesis  to  religious  thought  than  it  was 
twenty-five  years  ago.  History  and  literature  are  the  great 
opportunities  for  nurturing  the  religious  as  well  as  the  ethical 
view  of  life.  I  have  elsewhere  pointed  out  that  many  of  our 
heroes,  national  and  universal,  if  presented  truly,  bring  in 
religion  embodied  in  their  characters  and  actions.1 

Finally,  do  we  not  need  to  consider  earnestly  the  place  wrhich 
the  daily  chapel  exercise  in  its  various  forms  held  in  practically 
all  secondary  schools  and  colleges  but  a  short  time  ago  ?  Com- 
plete return  to  it  is  impossible  and  probably  not  desirable ; 
but  it  is  hard  to  doubt  that  we  need  to  gather  students  and 
teachers  together  more  frequently  in  meetings  whose  spirit  is 
earnest,  reverent,  thoughtful,  touched  with  emotion,  raised 
to  the  higher  levels  of  thought  and  feelings,  in  a  word,  and  in 
the  deepest  sense  of  that  word,  religious. 

THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  TEACHER 

LIMITATION  BY  CONDITIONS.  —  Miss  Addams  tells 
of  some  lads  who  complained  to  her  that  their  high  school 
principal  never  talked  to  them  about  life.  "  He  never  asks 
us  what  we  are  going  to  be;  we  can't  get  a  word  out  of  him 
excepting  lessons  and  keeping  quiet  in  the  halls."  Yet 
every  one  who  knows  the  social  status  of  the  school  and 
the  teacher  knows  that  the  blame  for  such  an  attitude 

1  Religious  Education,  April,  1911. 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  351 

rests  upon  society  and  its  treatment  of  the  school  and 
the  teacher  rather  than  upon  the  unfortunate  high  school 
principal  in  question,  or  the  thousands  of  teachers  who  are 
like  him.  The  intellectual  load  of  the  course  of  study,  tight 
bound  by  college  entrance  requirements,  exhausts  the  powers 
of  attention  and  effort  of  most  teachers.  In  the  small  school 
the  teacher  has  too  many  subjects  and  classes ;  in  the  large 
school  too  much  routine  and  regulation.  The  routine  must  be 
performed ;  spiritual  influence  cannot  be  placed  upon  a  time 
schedule  nor  tested  by  examination,  so  we  have  as  of  old  the 
tithing  of  mint  and  anise  and  cummin  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
weightier  matters  of  the  cultivation  of  judgment  and  righteous- 
ness in  the  pupils. 

REMEDIES. — The  amount  of  potential  moral  educative 
energy  stored  up,  or  rather  choked  up,  in  the  high  school 
teachers  of  the  land  is  beyond  computation.  Two  things  are 
greatly  to  be  desired :  first,  that  the  pressure  of  class  work, 
exercise  correction,  theme  reading,  laboratory  instruction, 
and  other  forms  of  routine  may  be  greatly  reduced,  and 
thus  allow  the  teacher  time  and  spiritual  energy  for  per- 
sonal relation  with  classes  and  individuals ;  then,  also,  that 
teachers  should  express  in  word  and  deed  the  interest  they 
feel  in  the  real  inner  state  and  development  of  their  pupils. 
The  secondary  teacher  of  other  days  was  a  teacher  of  youth ; 
now  he  is  an  instructor  in  mathematics  or  botany  or  Ger- 
man ;  the  difference  is  by  no  means  simply  verbal.  Admit- 
ting, although  only  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  that  the 
new  instructor  accomplishes  more  in  intellectual  progress, 
it  may  still  be  asked  whether  we  might  not  well  travel  quite 
halfway  toward  the  older  type.  After  all,  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  qualifications  for  the  teacher  is  that  embodied 
in  the  vow  of  the  Jesuit,  "  a  special  concern  for  the  education 
of  youth." 

Yet  must  the  teacher  study  to  be  only  a  stimulator  of  the 
mind  and  will  of  the  student ;  moral  education  consists  in 


352  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

bringing  to  pass  the  most  and  best  activity  of  the  will  of  the 
educand  himself,  in  all  its  phases,  —  energy,  intelligent  direc- 
tion, and  finally  righteousness.  He  must  do  right;  but  the 
vital  doing  is  inner,  psychic,  often  hidden  from  all  except 
perhaps  the  keenest  insight.  He  must  think  and  feel  aright ; 
the  moral  teacher  is  the  one  who  can  accomplish  this  inner 
result ;  and  the  doing  of  this  is  influence.  The  teacher  here 
as  elsewhere  is  to  find  his  success  in  rendering  himself  no 
longer  needed.  The  road  to  this  end  is  hard  to  find  ;  in  general 
it  requires  that  the  teacher  should  do  as  little  as  possible  and 
the  learner  as  much  as  possible.  We  have  suggested  that 
many  teachers  exercise  their  powers  of  moral  influence  too 
little  —  perhaps  speak  too  little  with  a  moral  aim ;  yet  it  is 
easy  to  say  too  much  and  do  too  much.  In  training  as  well  as 
in  instruction,  great  is  the  power  of  silence  and  refraining ;  not 
seldom  it  incites  the  educand  to  his  utmost  efforts  and  so 
advances  him  most  effectively  in  power  and  wisdom.  To  be 
ever  at  hand,  ready  to  help ;  ever  interested  in  the  problems, 
the  perplexities,  the  temptations,  the  hopes  and  ambitions, 
of  the  young ;  yet  not  to  meddle,  not  to  interrupt  needlessly, 
to  perceive  the  right  moment  and  divine  the  true  means,  - 
this  is  the  art  of  influence. 

Perhaps  the  most  practical  advice  that  can  be  given  to  the 
teacher  who  desires  success  in  this  task  is  to  follow  the  method 
of  the  Greeks,  who,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says,  poured  a  flood 
of  thought  about  every  question.  We  must  think  before  and 
after;  we  must  plan  our  operations  as  wisely  as  we  can,  and 
subject  the  outcome  to  earnest  scrutiny  that  we  may  do  more 
wisely  the  next  time.  Nor  is  any  individual  competent  to 
think  out  his  problems  unaided ;  the  flood  of  thought,  to  be 
safe  and  adequate,  must  come  from  many  minds ;  hence  the 
value  of  conference  in  all  its  forms,  especially,  however,  among 
small  groups  of  two  or  three  who  have  common  interests  and 
deal  with  the  same  or  similar  individuals. 

The  high  school  youth  is  looking  out  eagerly  into  the  world, 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  353 

—  of  which  he  usually  takes  a  very  unacademic  view.  His 
great  problems  all  look  in  that  direction,  as  indeed  they  should. 
He  often  views  his  teachers  as  semi-clerical,  unworldly,  almost 
secluded  in  their  minds  and  activity.  In  this  he  is  doubtless 
partly  wrong;  but  he  is  also  partly  right,  and  the  teacher 
who  will  seek  influence  in  any  high  degree  with  the  mass  of 
the  youth  must  live  in  the  current  of  the  world's  life,  think 
on  the  problems  of  the  day,  and  share  in  social,  civic,  and 
political  life.  Only  thus  can  he  either  trust  his  guidance  to 
be  right  or  hope  that  his  pupils  will  respond.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  great  price  at  which  influence  is  bought ;  fortunately  it  is 
also  worth  while  in  itself.  We  may  well  hope  that  various 
present  obstacles  to  such  activity  on  the  part  of  teachers  may 
be  removed. 

TOPICS  FOR   FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  How  can  will  power  be  developed  through  high  school  work  aside 
from  the  training  that  comes  from  meeting  moral  problems  ? 

2.  What  relation  exists  between  intellectual  results  and  moral  training 
so  far  as  you  have  observed  it  in  actual  schoolroom  experience  ? 

3.  What  changes  in  our  usual  high  school  curricula  are  demanded  to 
meet  this  problem  of  moral  education  ?    What  changes  of  method  ?    Of 
organization  ? 

4.  How  valuable  is  "direct"  moral  training  ?     How  can  it  be  given  ? 

5.  If  the  whole  problem  of  education  is  moral,  how  can  desired  moral 
results  be  obtained  from  any  one  given  subject,  as  mathematics,  history, 
or  literature  ? 

6.  What  is  the  relation  of  "interest"  to  moral  education,  as  you  have 
observed  it  in  your  own  experience  as  pupil  and  teacher  ? 

7.  In  what  respects  and  why  does  the  period  of  adolescence  seem  to 
be  the  most  fruitful  period  for  moral  education  ? 

8.  To  what  extent  is  it  possible  to  give  intellectual  instruction  through 
"problems"  and  how  does  this  affect  moral  education?     What  are  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  involved  ? 

q.    To  what  extent  should  sex  hygiene  form  a  part  of  the  instruction 
in  high  school  ?     How  can  it  best  be  given  ? 

10.  What  value  do  athletics  possess  as  a  means  to  moral  education? 
What  moral  problems  do  athletic  activities  present  to  the  high  school 
pupil  ? 


354  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

11.  To  what  extent  can  the  work  in  physical  education  be  made  the 
basis  of  moral  training  ? 

12.  To  what  extent  can  the  social  activities  and  organizations  of  the 
high  school  pupils  be  used  as  means  of  moral  training  ? 

13.  To  what  extent  can  forms  of   self-government  be  used  to  effect 
moral  results  ? 

14.  Compare  either  English,  French,  or  German  secondary   schools 
with  American  in  the  use  which  they  make  of  athletics,  physical  edu- 
cation, self-government  revenues,  direct  moral  instruction,  sex  hygiene 
instruction,  or  the  direct  instruction  in  the  intellectual  subjects,  as  means 
to  moral  education  ? 

15.  In  the  life  and  work  of  great  school  masters,  as  Arnold,  Thring, 
Hopkins,  was  it  their  influence  in  moral  education  or  in  intellectual  in- 
struction that  counted  more  ?     In  each  of  such  cases  what  were  the  means 
by  which  the  moral  influence  was  exerted  ? 

1 6.  Does  vocational  training  simplify  or  render  more  complex    the 
problem  of  moral  education  ?     Why  and  how  ? 

17.  To  what  extent,  as  shown  in  concrete  studies,  does  vocational 
guidance  aid  in  moral  education  ? 

1 8.  Does  coeducation  simplify  or  make  more  complex  the  problem  of 
moral  education  ?     In  what  respects  ? 

19.  What  place  has  religious  instruction  in  secondary  schools?     How 
can  it  best  be  given  ? 

20.  What  place  does  religious  instruction  have  in  the  adolescent  period  ? 
How  can  it  best  be  given  ? 

21.  What   is  the  relation  between  religious  instruction  and  moral 
education  ? 

22.  What  place  and  obligation  has  the  teacher  in  moral  education? 

REFERENCES 

ADLER,  F.     Moral  Instruction  of  Children.     New  York,  1898. 
BUTLER,  NICHOLAS  MURRAY,  and  others.     Principles  of  Religious  Edu- 
cation.    New  York,  1900. 
COE.    GEORGE   A.     Education   in   Religion   and   Morals.     New   York, 

1904. 

DEWEY,  J.     Ethical  Principles  underlying  Education.     Chicago,  1897. 
Moral  Principles  in  Education.     Boston,  1909. 
Interest  as  Related  to  Will.     Bloomington,  111.,  1896. 
DRAWBRIDGE,  C.  L.     Religious  Education.     How  to  Improve  It.     Lon- 
don, 1906. 
First  International  Moral  Education  Congress : 


Moral  and  Religious  Education  355 

(1)  Record  of  Proceedings.     London,  1908. 

(2)  Papers  on  Moral  Education.     London,  1908. 

JENKS,  J.  W.     Life  Questions  for  High  School  Boys.     Y.  W.  C.  A.,  1910. 
JONES,  HENRY,  and  others.      The  Child  and  Religion.     New  York  and 

London,  1905. 
Publications  of  the   Religious   Education   Association    (Chicago)    and 

of  the  Catholic  Educational  Association  (Columbus). 
McCuxN,  J.     The  Making  of  Character.     New  York,  1900. 
PALMER,  G.  H.     Ethical  and  Moral  Instruction  in  Schools.     Boston,  1909. 
Religious  Education  Association.     Education  and  National  Character. 
RILEY,  A.,  and  others.     The  Religious  Question  in  Public  Education. 

London,  1911. 
SADLER,  M.  E.     Moral  Instruction  and  Training  in  Schools.     London, 

1908. 

SPALDING,  J.  L.     Means  and  Ends  of  Education.     Chicago,  1901. 
SPILLER,    G.     Report   on   Moral   Instruction   and   on   Moral    Training. 

Bibliography.     London,  1909. 
SPILLER,   G.,   ed.     Papers  on  Moral  Education.     International  Moral 

Education  Congress.     London,  1909. 
See  also  the  References  in  the  body  of  this  article. 


CHAPTER   IX 
THE   VERNACULAR 

THE  TEACHING  OF  LITERATURE.  —  As  early  as  Plato 
the  fundamental  theoretical  principles  which  underlie  the  teach- 
ing of  literature  were  already  clearly  stated.  In  the  Gorgias 
the  character  who  gives  the  name  to  this  dialogue  maintains 
that  he  has  elaborated  an  art,  the  art  of  rhetoric,  which  is 
communicable  by  teaching  and  which  will  assure  to  the  practi- 
tioner of  that  art  the  greatest  possible  happiness.  Plato,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  we  may  assume  that  Isocrates  expresses 
Plato's  opinions,  maintains  that  what  Gorgias  calls  an  art  is 
a  false  art,  is  merely  flattery  (cf .  the  place  which  is  assigned  to 
the  poet  in  the  Republic},  and  that  real  power  has  to  do  only 
with  the  perception  of  and  control  over  that  inner  truth  which 
is  each  man's  possession  in  varying  degrees  by  gift  of  nature, 
and  that  consequently  there  is  no  communicable  art  of  ex- 
pression based  upon  sound  moral  principles.  To  these  two 
views,  both  manifestly  presented  in  the  extreme,  should  be 
added  a  third,  set  forth  in  the  Ion.  This  is  the  doctrine  of 
"  secondary  inspiration,"  according  to  which  certain  persons 
whose  spirits  are  attuned  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  the  writings 
of  some  specific  master  of  literature  are  thus  enabled  to  put 
themselves  with  respect  to  these  writings  into  a  sympathetic 
mood  of  enthusiasm  which  is  similar  to  the  mood  of  the  author 
in  composing  them,  and  which  in  a  certain  degree  is  communi- 
cable to  others.  The  three  principal  points,  therefore,  which 
are  represented  in  these  two  dialogues,  expressed  in  terms  of 
modern  thought,  are,  first,  the  possibility  of  teaching  the 
technique  of  an  art  of  literature ;  second,  the  necessity  of 
basing  literature  not  upon  technique,  but  upon  personal 

356 


The   Vernacular  357 

character,  which  is  not  communicable  and  consequently  not 
teachable ;  and  third,  the  transmission  of  the  elements  of 
personal  character  not  completely  but  in  an  imperfect  manner 
by  means  of  sympathetic  appreciation  or  secondary  inspira- 
tion. If  we  add  to  these  principles  a  conception  not  possible 
in  Plato's  time,  the  conception  of  a  history  or  development  of 
literature,  we  shall  have  all  the  main  ideas  which  underlie 
the  modern  teaching  of  the  subject. 

ENGLISH  LITERATURE  IN  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.  - 
The  question  of  the  advisability  of  teaching  literature  in  the 
modern  secondary  schools  has  been  definitely  answered  by  ac- 
tual experience.  Through  the  various  stages  of  the  elocution- 
ary speaking  of  "  pieces,"  the  use  of  reading  books,  and  finally 
the  detailed  and  formal  study  of  English  classics,  the  study  of 
literature  has  gradually  taken  its  place  in  the  school  curriculum, 
although  it  is  only  within  the  present  generation  that  extensive 
and  specific  provision  has  been  made  for  such  study.  The  cause 
and  the  justification  for  the  contemporary  emphasis  placed 
upon  the  study  of  the  English  language  and  literature  are 
intimately  bound  up  with  the  democratic  tendencies  in  general 
of  both  language  and  literature  within  the  last  three  genera- 
tions. English  literature,  beginning  with  the  reforms  of  the 
late  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries,  has  become 
more  and  more  in  its  modern  manifestations  an  expression  of 
general  social  ideas  and  emotions  than  it  has  ever  been  before, 
and  its  range  of  appeal  has  consequently  become  wider. 
Moreover,  the  modern  school,  in  the  extraordinary  expansion 
by  which  it  has  assumed  to  itself  many  different  kinds  of 
activity,  left  by  the  earlier  school  either  to  the  limited  instruc- 
tion of  the  parent  or  of  special  masters,  has  at  the  same  time 
assumed  certain  responsibilities,  necessarily  arising  from  the 
instruction  in  the  elements  of  these  new  subjects  which  the 
school  provides  for  the  public  at  large.  Thus  in  teaching 
practically  every  member  of  the  community  how  to  read  and 
write,  the  school  has  placed  within  the  reach  of  all  the  elements 


358  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

necessary  to  the  understanding  and  the  practice  of  the  literary 
art.  Having  provided  the  general  public  with  the  key  of 
admission  to  the  treasury  of  English  literature,  modern 
education  cannot  consistently  abandon  the  public  thereafter 
to  its  own  undisciplined  devices.  A  system  of  universal 
popular  education  logically  demands  that  attention  be  given 
to  so  influential  an  element  as  literature  in  the  life  of  the  people  ; 
and  in  answer  to  this  demand,  from  the  lowest  grades  through 
the  secondary  school,  the  college,  and  the  university,  the  study 
of  the  literature  of  the  vernacular  has  come  to  occupy  an  im- 
portant, and,  on  the  whole,  unquestioned  place.  The  de- 
batable question  is  no  longer  whether  English  literature  shall 
be  taught  to  English  students,  but  how  and  with  what  varying 
degrees  of  emphasis  it  shall  be  taught. 

Literary  Appreciation.  —  Perhaps  the  most  important  single 
result  of  modern  practical  experience  has  been  the  turning 
aside  from  matters  of  information  about  authors  and  litera- 
ture, as  exemplified  in  the  old-fashioned  manuals  of  the  history 
of  literature,  to  an  attempt  at  direct  appreciation  of  the 
literary  monuments  themselves.  It  is  now  generally  recognized 
that  historical  and  biographical  information  with  respect  to 
literature  is  of  secondary  value,  and  that  it  finds  its  justifica- 
tion in  instruction  only  when  it  helps  the  student  to  a  truer 
appreciation  of  the  literary  product.  The  study  of  literature 
is  not,  therefore,  an  appendage  to  the  study  of  history ;  and 
this  is  especially  true  in  the  elementary  teaching  of  literature. 
The  details  of  historical  and  biographical  information  are 
matters  of  scholarship,  whereas  the  proper  understanding  of 
literature  in  its  simplicity  is  not  primarily  a  matter  of  scholar- 
ship, but  rather  of  sensibility  and  feeling. 

Study  of  the  Vocabulary.  —  At  the  same  time  it  is  recog- 
nized that  the  teaching  of  elementary  English  literature  is 
not  altogether  a  matter  of  sensibility  and  feeling,  and  that  it 
has  elements  of  a  severer  intellectual  discipline  in  it.  In  the 
first  place,  all  literary  expression  is  made  up  of  words,  and  an 


Tke   Vernacular  359 

intelligent  understanding  of  the  meanings  and  connotations 
of  words  is  absolutely  necessary  to  any  adequate  appreciation 
of  literary  monuments.  The  teacher,  therefore,  must  gauge 
the  capabilities  of  students  with  respect  to  the  vocabulary  of 
the  literary  expression  under  examination  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  sure  that  their  understanding  is  not  only  clear,  but  also 
in  accordance  with  the  normal  traditional  usages  of  the  lan- 
guage. It  is  not  enough  that  students  should  have  a  definite 
impression  of  a  work  of  literature  ;  they  must  also  have  correct 
impressions.  In  acquiring  this  right  understanding  of  words, 
which,  as  Plato  has  justly  said,  is  the  basis  of  scholarship, 
the  teacher's  most  intelligent  judgment  and  oversight  are 
necessary.  Obviously  the  study  of  a  literary  monument  the 
expression  of  which  is  so  far  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the 
student  that  his  attention  is  completely  taken  up  with  details, 
leaving  him  no  energy  for  the  synthesis  of  his  impressions, 
should  be  deferred  until  the  student  has  at  his  command 
a  wider  range  both  of  vocabulary  and  of  modes  of  thought. 

The  Literary  Language.  —  Another  kind  of  definite  fact 
which  the  elementary  teacher  of  literature  may  not  neglect 
is  that  which  has  to  do  with  certain  forms  of  phrasing  peculiar 
to  the  literary  style,  especially  the  use  of  figurative  language. 
These  modes  of  expression  are  usually  quite  outside  the 
student's  natural  colloquial  experience,  and  unless  they  are 
specifically  analyzed,  the  significance  of  them  is  not  clearly 
realized,  even  when  the  individual  words  are  intelligible. 
It  is  the  frequent  experience  of  all  teachers  of  English  literature 
that  even  fairly  mature  students  are  unable  to  see  the  value 
of  a  metaphorical  expression,  an  inability  which  arises  not 
so  much  from  an  inactive  intelligence  as  it  does  from  unfamil- 
iarity  with  the  literary  convention  contained  in  the  manner  of 
expression.  The  study  of  literary  style,  as  it  was  developed 
in  the  early  manuals  of  rhetoric,  and  as  it  was  based  upon  the 
study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  limited  itself  almost 
exclusively  to  the  analysis  and  classification  of  figures  and 


360  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

metaphors.  The  futility  of  all  such  classification  merely  for 
the  sake  of  classification  acknowledged,  it  must  be  granted  also 
that,  within  proper  bounds,  the  analysis  of  metaphorical 
expression  is  justifiable  and  necessary. 

Still  a  third  group  of  facts  to  be  noted  in  the  disciplinary 
study  of  elementary  literature  consists  of  allusions,  proper 
names,  and  other  matters  of  information  embodied  in  the  text, 
the  understanding  of  which  is  necessary  for  the  proper  grasp- 
ing of  the  writer's  intention.  Here  again  it  is  apparent  that 
works  such  as  some  of  the  satires  of  Dryden  and  Pope,  in 
which  the  local  and  contemporary  allusions  are  so  numerous 
as  to  absorb  all  the  student's  attention,  are  hardly  appropriate 
material  for  elementary  instruction. 

The  Philological  Method.  —  When  stress  is  placed  heavily 
upon  these  details  of  fact,  that  is,  on  vocabulary,  figures,  al- 
lusions, etc.,  the  result  is  what  is  often  called  the  "  philological" 
method  of  the  study  of  literature.  This  kind  of  literary  study, 
which  arose  out  of  a  desire  to  give  the  study  what  was  con- 
sidered a  disciplinary  value,  was  much  more  in  vogue  in  a  pre- 
ceding generation  than  it  is  at  present.  The  study  of  figures 
of  speech,  for  example,  was  made  a  very  technical  drill  in  the 
classification  of  the  figures  under  the  heads  of  an  elaborate  and 
pedantic  system  of  classical  terminology.  In  the  same  way 
the  study  of  vocabulary  was,  and  often  continues  to  be, 
carried  to  extremes  in  the  consideration  of  the  etymological 
origins  of  the  various  words,  or  their  comparative  uses  by 
different  writers,  and  similar  questions.  The  study  of  gram- 
mar is  often  combined  with  the  study  of  literature,  and  teachers 
have  been  known  to  compel  students  to  parse  through  every 
word  of  In  Mcmoriam  under  the  pretense  of  a  literary  study 
of  that  poem.  It  is  perhaps  sufficient  to  point  out  here  that 
the  philological  method  When  carried  to  such  extremes  does  not 
answer  the  requirements  of  the  study  of  literature,  however 
valuable  it  may  be  as  a  technical  drill  in  language.  The  com- 
mon-sense conclusion  seems  to  be  that  a  piece  of  literature 


The   Vernacular  36 1 

should  not  be  taken  up,  at  least  in  elementary  or  secondary 
instruction,  when  it  requires  such  elaborate  linguistic  commen- 
tary that  the  student's  attention  and  energy  are  completely 
abstracted  from  the  appreciation  and  enjoyment  of  the  work 
merely  as  literature. 

Technique  and  Structure.  — -  The  more  subtle  questions  of 
technique,  such  as  those  which  have  to  do  with  form  or 
structure  in  the  larger  sense,  the  differentiation  of  types,  the 
conventions  of  individual  types,  etc.,  are  usually,  and  may  very 
well  be,  disregarded  in  elementary  instruction.  With  the 
most  mature  students  the  interest  of  these  questions  with 
respect  to  literature  may  be  considered  as  esoteric,  and  with 
younger  students,  much  more  limited  in  power  of  abstract 
thought,  the  dwelling  upon  them  is  merely  confusing.  There 
is  perhaps  somewhat  more  justification  in  dwelling  upon 
historical  considerations,  e.g.  the  period  at  which  a  work  was 
written  and  the  particular  contemporary  circumstances  of  its 
composition.  Such  details  are  often  helpful  in  grasping  the 
meaning  of  a  work  as  a  whole.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  students 
should  be  much  troubled  with  attempts  to  group  writers  into 
periods,  or  to  appreciate  large  general  movements,  like 
classicism  and  romanticism,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  their 
literary  training.  The  usual  plan  of  reserving  such  considera- 
tions for  the  last  year  of  the  secondary  curriculum  or  for  the 
college  seems  to  be  the  wisest. 

As  to  the  question  of  transmitting  appreciation  for  the 
literary  monument  itself,  after  all  matters  of  technical  detail 
have  been  disposed  of,  apparently  little  that  is  of  practical 
value  can  be  said.  It  will  be  generally  conceded  that  Plato 
was  right  when  he  declared  that  there  was  no  communicable 
technique  for  the  best  aspects  of  literature,  and  that  a  right 
feeling,  "  a  secondary  inspiration,"  will  accomplish  more  than 
the  most  ingenious  technical  analysis.  And  as  the  Greek 
rhapsodists  gave  expression  to  this  secondary  inspiration 
mainly  by  reciting  the  works  of  the  authors  who  inspired 


362  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

them,  so  in  elementary  instruction  intelligent  reading  is  often 
more  effective  than  elaborate  commentary. 

Moral  and  Cultural  Value.  —  One  other  aspect  of  the  ele- 
mentary study  of  literature  presents  itself  insistently  to  the 
teacher,  and  this  is  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  study 
of  literature  to  the  study  of  morals,  ideas,  and  civilization  in 
general.  It  is  obvious  that  the  possibilities  of  correlations 
of  this  kind  in  literary  study  are  almost  illimitable  in  extent. 
No  other  kind  of  expression  has  summed  up  so  directly  and  so 
compactly  as  English  literature  has  done  the  ideas  and  forces 
which  have  exerted  influence  upon  the  thought  of  the  English 
people.  Any  adequate  study  of  the  monuments  of  English 
literature  must  consequently  and  of  necessity  lead  over  into 
a  consideration  of  moral  ideas.  The  study  of  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  of  Silas  Marner,  of  The  Ancient  Mariner,  to  choose 
a  few  examples  at  random,  inevitably  raises  in  each  instance 
important  questions  of  moral  conduct  which  are  inherent 
in  the  very  conception  of  the  works.  The  endeavor 
to  exclude  such  discussions  by  limiting  the  choice  of 
texts  read  to  simple  narrative,  like  Scott's  narrative  poems, 
seems  hardly  defensible,  since  it  excludes  what  must  be  re- 
garded as  the  most  characteristic  products  of  English  literature. 
Here  again  a  balanced  and  common-sense  attitude  toward 
the  question  of  moral  instruction  in  the  teaching  of  literature 
seems  to  be  the  only  one  tenable.  To  make  literature  merely 
the  vehicle  for  the  conveyance  of  moral  instruction,  to  torture 
a  moral  lesson  out  of  every  innocent  poem  or  tale,  changes 
the  subject  from  the  study  of  literature  to  the  study  of  ethics, 
besides  frequently  destroying  for  the  student  the  characteristic 
charm  of  the  writings  under  consideration.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  moral  and  didactic  implications  of  many  of  the  most  im- 
portant monuments  of  English  literature  cannot  be  disregarded 
without  slighting  what  is  after  all  one  of  the  most  persistent 
and  prominent  characteristics  of  the  whole  history  of  that 
literature. 


The   Vernacular  363 

Grading  the  Material.  —  The  question  of  grading  the 
material  used  in  literary  study  may  naturally  be  answered 
variously  according  to  the  attendant  circumstances.  In 
general,  however,  in  the  early  years  of  the  elementary 
pupil's  development,  the  most  appropriate  material  will  be 
found  in  fairy  tales,  folk  tales,  myths,  and  simplified  forms 
of  epic  narrative.  The  next  stage  in  the  development  of 
popular  narrative,  and  the  one  which  is  most  appropriate 
for  study  in  the  later  years  of  the  elementary  school,  is  rep- 
resented by  the  romantic  tales  of  chivalry,  such  as  the  stories 
of  King  Arthur  and  other  medieval  romances,  as  well  as 
chivalric  stories  from  actual  history.  In  the  secondary  school, 
on  the  other  hand,  considerably  more  attention  is  paid,  and 
appropriately  so,  to  writings  which  are  specifically  works  of 
literary  art,  and  which  consequently  bear  the  marks  of  con- 
scious literary  artifice,  such,  for  example,  as  the  list  of  "  Eng- 
lish Classics  "  prescribed  for  reading  and  study  in  preparation 
for  entrance  into  college,  and  the  still  larger  list  now  recom- 
mended for  all  secondary  schools  by  the  National  Council  of 
Teachers  of  English. 

THE  TEACHER  AS  AN  INTERPRETER  OF  LITERA- 
TURE. —  The  "  interpretation  of  literature  "  is  a  general  ex- 
pression including  one  or  more  of  several  things.  In  its  pri- 
mary and  simple  sense,  it  means  understanding  what  the  author 
has  said.  Such  interpretation  is  the  main  thing  in  reading 
simple  straightforward  prose  like  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Speech 
or  Macaulay's  Life  of  JoJinson,  and  simple  poetry  like  Long- 
fellow's The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus  or  Homer's  Odyssey.  It  is 
in  this  primary  sense  that  the  child  reads  his  Second  Reader, 
and  the  average  man  reads  his  daily  newspaper.  He  gets 
the  surface  meaning,  interpreted  and  made  significant  by  such 
experiences  as  he  has  had.  But  what  the  classical  scholar  gets 
in  reading  Homer  differs  widely  in  quality  and  quantity  from 
what  the  schoolboy  gets ;  what  the  statesman  or  historian 
understands  and  sees  in  the  daily  news  differs  from  the  read- 


364  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ing  of  the  ordinary  citizen ;  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  had  more 
meaning  for  the  Puritan  theologians  than  it  has  for  a  twentieth- 
century  reader.  It  is  obvious  that  even  in  the  reading  of  the 
clearest,  simplest  literature  there  are  widely  varying  degrees 
of  understanding  and  mental  responsiveness.  It  is  equally 
obvious  that  as  the  education  of  the  child  progresses  he  ought 
year  by  year  to  be  able  to  get  more  out  of  the  simpler  forms  of 
literature,  and  to  read  literature  whose  comprehension  re- 
quires more  accumulated  experience  from  both  life  and  books ; 
the  general  field  of  literature  ought  for  him  to  have  year  by 
year  more  and  deeper  significance.  As  his  power  of  inter- 
pretation grows  with  his  general  mental  growth,  he  will 
naturally  put  away  some  of  the  childish  things.  It  is  no  dis- 
paragement of  the  nursery  rhymes  and  folk-tales  that  the  high 
school  pupil  has  outgrown  them ;  no  disparagement  of  Long- 
fellow that  he  has  little  to  say  to  highly  cultivated  minds, 
though  he  may  have  been  among  the  favorite  authors  of  their 
nonage. 

Interpretation  is,  then,  a  changing  and  growing,  not  a  static, 
power  in  all  who  are  in  process  of  being  educated.  It  is  pri- 
marily a  matter  of  comprehension.  It  is  closely  related  also 
to  taste,  has  much  to  do  with  forming  and  determining  taste ; 
for  how  one  feels  towards  a  subject  is  determined  largely  by 
how  much  one  understands.  Is  the  town  drunkard  a  joke, 
or  an  object  of  pity?  Is  the  financial  bandit  to  be  envied 
or  to  be  despised?  Was  Napoleon  a  great  man,  or  a  powerful 
brute?  Is  war  glorious,  or  senseless  and  bestial?  Are  the 
footlights  of  the  cheap  theater  the  entrance  to  fairyland? 
Your  answer  to  such  questions  will  indicate  not  only  your 
feelings,  but  what  you  really  know.  And  so  with  books.  Is 
Dickens  sometimes  vulgar  or  maudlin?  Does  he  rank  high 
in  fertility  of  invention?  Is  Omar  Khayyam  irreligious? 
Is  the  newspaper  you  read  conducted  with  intelligence  and 
honesty?  Do  you  accept  the  statements  of  advertisers  or 
politicians  at  their  face  value?  A  book,  like  a  fact,  is  nothing 


The   Vernacular  365 

in  itself.  Unread,  it  is  non-existent.  Read  by  one  person, 
it  is  one  thing ;  by  another  person,  another  thing ;  to  the  same 
person  at  different  times,  even,  a  book  may  have  widely  dif- 
ferent values.  Different  ages,  as  well  as  different  persons, 
have  viewed  differently  the  same  books.  Shakespeare  in- 
tended his  audience  to  jeer  at  Shy  lock  in  his  defeat,  and  they 
did ;  but  modern  readers,  actors,  and  audiences  find  him  a 
tragic  figure  in  spite  of  Shakespeare's  clear  intention,  and 
Portia's  mercy  speech  rings  hollow  if  not  hypocritical.  Don 
Quixote  was  a  humorous  scarecrow  to  the  seventeenth  century, 
an  object  of  sympathy  and  admiration  to  the  nineteenth. 
The  interpretation  of  literature  is,  indeed,  a  highly  relative 
thing :  changeable,  various,  and  complex.  And  the  teacher 
must  not  expect  a  book  to  have  the  same  import  and  value 
for  all  his  pupils. 

The  student  of  literature,  that  is,  the  thoughtful  reader  of 
literature,  may  approach  it  from  different  directions.  These 
approaches  may  be  determined  by  our  own  dominant  interests 
or  by  the  nature  of  the  literature  itself. 

i.  Our  interests  may  be  largely  linguistic.  We  may  study 
our  Shakespeare,  our  Chaucer,  our  Alfred,  for  the  language  of 
the  time.  This  is  an  interesting  and  important  study,  but 
it  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  the  study  of  literature.  It  is  the 
study  of  that  in  which  literature  is  expressed,  and  without 
which  it  cannot  be  understood.  The  authors  and  scholars 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  being  ignorant  of  Middle  English, 
were  under  the  delusion  that  Chaucer  was  barbarous  and  un- 
musical, and  so  failed  to  enjoy  the  charm  of  his  poetry.  Eng- 
lish philology  has  put  Chaucer  back  among  the  readable 
poets.  Most  of  the  failure  of  high  school  pupils  and  ordinary 
readers  to  appreciate  Shakespeare  is  due  to  the  strangeness 
of  his  language ;  he  was  clear  enough  to  the  audiences  of  his 
own  day. 

To  slight  the  study  of  words  in  teaching  literature  is  to 
render  the  reading  weak  and  colorless.  Not  only  the  mean- 


366  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ing,  but  the  quality  and  flavor,  of  a  selection  are  determined 
by  the  fine  shades  of  diction.  He  only  has  learned  to  read 
who  has  become  sensitive  to  words,  and  is  willing  to  give  care- 
ful thought  to  their  meaning.  Such  a  reader  will  find  his  range 
widened,  not  only  in  English,  but  in  its  related  dialects.  Burns 
and  Scott  among  the  elder,  and  Barrie  among  the  later,  writers 
demand  an  eye  and  ear  quick  to  take  in  dialect.  Tales  of 
Irish  life,  stories  in  negro  dialect,  like  Uncle  Remus,  and  many 
other  variations  from  standard  English  may  be  read  not  only 
with  pleasure  but  in  confidence  that  they  are  literature.  The 
genius  of  the  English-speaking  peoples  is  hospitable  to  new 
and  changing  forms  of  speech,  averse  to  fixity  and  to  linguistic 
authority. 

2.  Our  interest  may  be  biographical,  not  in  the  narrow 
sense  of  the  external  facts  of  the  author's  life,  —  those  events 
that  can  be  recorded  with  dates  affixed,  —  but  in  the  fuller 
sense  of  an  interest  in  the  personality  of  the  man.  Much 
so-called  biography  is  only  remote  gossip  ;  not  wholly  unworthy 
and  ignoble,  if  taken  as  an  interesting  and  significant  part  of 
the  great  human  document.  One  would  not  like  to  be  igno- 
rant of  the  fact  that  the  great  have  had  their  sins  and  foibles ; 
but  one  would  hardly  wish  to  have  such  things  loom  so  large 
as  to  impair  one's  sense  of  values.  Yet,  in  studying  literature 
those  features  of  an  author's  life  and  character  which  help 
us  to  understand  his  work  are  well  worth  while.  The  con- 
nection between  one  man's  life  and  his  books  will  not  be  the 
same  as  another's.  Burns,  Lamb,  Goldsmith,  Stevenson,  have 
written  themselves  into  their  work  in  a  full  and  direct  fashion. 
Milton  and  Tennyson  have  done  it  much  less  directly.  For 
such  of  his  life  as  we  have,  Shakespeare  has  done  it  still  less ; 
and  it  is  hard  to  see,  in  these  last  three  instances,  how  the 
study  of  their  lives  can  throw  much  light  upon,  or  create  much 
interest  in,  their  work  for  young  students.  Indeed,  it  is  rather 
common  among  lovers  of  literature  for  their  interest  in  literary 
biographies  to  come  late,  —  say  at  twenty-five  or  later,  —  though 


The   Vernacular  367 

their  familiarity  with  good  literature  may  date  from  their 
early  'teens. 

When  one  has  reached  the  point  of  finding  the  author's 
personality  in  his  work,  he  has  come  to  the  thing  of  value  in 
the  biographical  aspect  of  his  studies.  How  a  flower,  or  a 
waterfall,  or  a  peasant  appealed  to  Wordsworth,  to  Burns, 
to  Scott,  to  Tennyson ;  how  Shelley  reacted  to  a  social  wrong, 
how  Burns  did,  how  Dickens  did ;  what  things  were  humorous 
to  Chaucer,  to  Shakespeare,  to  Jane  Austen ;  what  things 
roused  Milton's  anger,  and  what  his  reverence ;  which  authors 
see  life  direct,  and  which  see  it  through  the  medium  of  books ; 
what  things  appeal  to  the  senses  of  this  man  or  that,  —  these 
are  not  biographical  questions  only,  but  critical,  also,  and  are 
therefore  interpretation  of  literature  in  a  very  real  sense. 

3.  Our  interest  may  be  historical.  We  may  view  a  piece 
of  literature  as  a  link  in  the  chain  of  historic  development. 
The  rise  and  end  of  the  epic ;  the  invention  of  the  sonnet, 
its  disuse  and  subsequent  revival ;  the  rise  and  decline  of  the 
heroic  couplet ;  the  development  of  the  various  forms  of  the 
novel,  in  the  guise  of  letters,  or  of  autobiography  or  of  the 
omniscient  third  personal  narrator,  —  these  and  many  other 
matters  of  form  invite  historical  study.  More  interesting 
than  these  matters  of  form,  however,  is  the  development  of 
ideas.  The  sonnet  has  enlarged  its  scope  from  a  simple, 
usually  trivial,  love  motive,  until  it  includes  almost  every 
phase  of  human  experience  capable  of  brief  poetic  expression. 
Ideals  and  standards  of  taste  and  morality  have  changed 
immensely.  Some  of  the  tricks  played  upon  foolish  Malvolio 
strike  a  modern  audience  as  brutal  rather  than  funny  ;  and  so 
the  prison  scene  is  now  omitted  from  stage  representations  of 
Twelfth  Night.  Milton's  ideas  of  woman's  place  are  not  the 
same  as  those  in  Tennyson's  The  Princess.  Chaucer's  Wife 
of  Bath  had  a  freedom  of  speech  repugnant  to  the  taste  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  our  own  time  seems  disposed  to 
allow  her  modern  counterparts  an  equal  degree  of  freedom  in 


368  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  name  of  the  social  sciences.  The  bludgeon-like  insults  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  in  epigram  or  heroic  couplet,  once 
passed  for  wit  and  satire ;  now  they  would  only  serve  to  mark 
the  author  as  socially  "  impossible."  Since  Wordsworth's 
day  the  humble  and  the  poor  and  the  child  have  come  to  a  place 
in  literature  undreamed  of  in  Shakespeare's  day. 

Such  changes  in  literature  both  record  and  cause  the  changes 
in  social  ideals,  and  are  therefore  not  only  profoundly  inter- 
esting, but,  as  subjects  of  study,  immensely  valuable.  The 
student  who  has  begun  to  notice  such  things,  to  compare  ideals 
in  different  times  and  different  authors,  has  begun  not  only 
to  read,  but  to  learn  and  to  think ;  he  has  awakened  to  what 
is  perhaps  the  greatest  educational  force  in  literature.  To 
cite  a  familiar  instance  :  When  George  Eliot  closes  her  village 
idyll  of  Silas  Marner  by  marrying  her  heroine  to  a  common 
village  laborer,  instead  of  letting  her  enter  into  the  inheritance 
and  the  opportunities  which  her  father,  the  squire,  offers  her, 
we  note  the  unconventional  nature  of  the  denouement.  Why 
has  the  author  done  this?  Out  of  regard  for  young  Aaron, 
the  rustic  lover?  Hardly,  for  he  need  not  even  have  been 
introduced  into  the  story.  To  punish  the  father  for  his 
cowardly  delay  in  acknowledging  his  child?  But  he  has 
already  been  punished  in  various  ways  :  he  is  childless,  he  has 
his  conscience  and  a  gently  censorious  wife.  Is  this  the  only 
way  of  rewarding  Silas?  He  could  die  in  peace  and  happi- 
ness before  the  necessity  for  Eppie's  choice  arises.  Does  the 
author  mean  that  there  is  more  happiness  in  a  cottage  than  in 
a  mansion  ?  Is  it  the  spirit  of  nineteenth  century  democracy, 
or  her  strong  sense  of  the  laws  of  things,  that  guides  the  author 
to  this  ending  ?  Whatever  answer  we  make,  we  are  forced  to 
admit  that  the  story  would  probably  not  have  been  ended 
thus  before  the  days  of  George  Eliot.  Any  one  of  a  dozen 
authors  of  the  nineteenth  century  might  have  ended  the 
story  as  she  did,  but  hardly  one  of  those  of  an  earlier 
century. 


The    Vernacular  369 

4.  Our  interest  may  be  purely  aesthetic.     In  much  of  our 
reading  we  are  content  with  the  satisfaction  of  our  aesthetic 
sense.     We  find  the  story  or  poem  is  beautiful,  and  ask  no  more 
of  it.     Such  is  the  appeal  of  many  lyrics,  for  example.     The 
songs  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  comedies 
of  Shakespeare,  the  odes  of  Keats  and  Shelley,  the  poetry  of 
Swinburne,  often  raise  little  thought,  or  none,  as  to  their  mean- 
ing, their  wisdom.     They  have  no  "  message,"  no  evangel, 
for  us.     It  may  be  beauty  of  sound  that  we  feel,  ranging  all 
the  way  from  the  simple  rhythm  of  Mother  Goose  to  the  in- 
tricate melody  of  Swinburne  or  the  "  organ-music  "  of  Milton. 
It  may  be  the  beauty  of  the  picture  presented,  as  in  Keats' 
Eve  of  St.  Agnes.     It  may  be  the  vague  stirring  of  other 
aesthetic  memories,  as  in  Keats'  Nightingale  or  Wordsworth's 
Highland  Girl.     Often,  indeed,  the  pleasure   is   in   a   thrill, 
a  transport,  compounded  of  several  of  these  elements.     To 
those  for  whom  such  things  have  no  appeal,  they  have  no 
appeal.     The  deaf  cannot  enjoy  music,  the  blind  do  not  fre- 
quent picture-galleries ;    but  deafness  and  blindness  are  mis- 
fortunes, not  arguments. 

5.  Our  interest  may  be  in  the  form  and  structure  of  a  piece 
of  literature.     We  may  examine  the  meter  and  rhyme  arrange- 
ment of  poetry,  study  and  compare  the  various  types  of  sonnet 
structure,  note  the  parts  of  a  short  story,  trace  the  threads  of 
action  in  the  complicated  plot  of  a  novel,  follow  the  develop- 
ment of  a  drama  through  the  crisis  to  the  denouement,  or  note 
the  logical  relation  in  the  parts  of  an   essay.     Such  study, 
especially  in  the  drama  and  prose  fiction,  involves  important 
acts  of  judgment,  where  plot  is  made  to  depend  on  probability 
in  action  or  consistency  in  character.     That  story  is  con- 
vincing which  seems  to  unfold  naturally  and  inevitably  from 
given  conditions.     Where  probability  is  strained  or  character 
forced,  the  story  weakens.     The  effect  of  a  drama  or  story 
depends  much  upon  the  arrangement  of  climaxes,  suspense, 
and  expositions.     The  study  of  these  things  demands  inter- 

2  B 


370  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

esting  acts  of  judgment.  And  when  we  seek  to  determine 
the  fitness  of  a  verse-form  to  the  idea  expressed  in  it,  both 
judgment  and  taste  are  involved. 

It  is  easy  and  tempting  to  overdo  this  form  of  study.  Its 
definiteness  is  attractive,  like  the  definiteness  of  mathematics 
or  formal  grammar.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  litera- 
ture is  complicated,  as  mathematics  and  grammar  are  not, 
with  quite  other  elements  that  do  not  lend  themselves  to  exact 
formulation.  Emotion  and  taste  are  complex,  often  nebulous, 
and  must  not  be  dissipated  in  a  mistaken  effort  for  exactness 
and  formality. 

The  kinds  of  study  sketched  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs 
will  not  answer  the  question  how  a  given  selection  is  to  be  read. 
Generally  it  should  be  from  several  of  these  points  of  view. 
The  treatment  appropriate  to  one  piece  of  literature  is  un- 
suited  to  another  ;  the  presentation  of  the  same  piece  of  litera- 
ture will  quite  properly  differ  for  different  classes,  or  for  the 
same  class  in  the  hands  of  different  teachers.  No  teaching 
in  the  secondary  school  should  or  could  exhaust  all  these  types 
of  study.  Any  method  which  reduces  the  teaching  of  the 
classics  to  rule  and  formula  is  pretty  certain  to  become  in- 
flexible, unsympathetic,  wooden,  because  it  loses  sight,  first, 
of  the  relative  interest  and  values  of  things  in  any  particular 
piece  of  literature,  and,  second,  of  the  things  that  can  appeal 
most  to  the  given  class.  The  attitude  of  the  teacher  should 
be  that  of  a  cultivated  mind  ready  to  help  his  pupils  see  and 
appreciate  those  things  which  at  their  stage  they  can  best  see 
and  those  things  from  which  they  can  get  most  of  information, 
wisdom,  and  aesthetic  satisfaction. 

As  to  method,  little  need  be  said.  It  will,  of  course,  be  no 
stereotyped  method  that  will  get  good  results.  Relevant 
information,  sometimes  got  from  suggested  reading,  sometimes 
imparted  viva  voce  (even  brief  lectures  are  not  always  bad)  ; 
questions  that  hint  at  and  open  up  new  ideas  ;  tests  of  memory  ; 
reading  aloud,  not  too  much,  even  though  the  teacher  does 


The   Vernacular  371 

think  he  reads  well ;  enthusiastic  emphasis  upon  the  really 
significant  and  beautiful  things ;  some  analysis  —  again  not 
too  much  —  upon  what  gives  the  beauty  and  significance ; 
and  a  large  catholicity  of  taste  regarding  both  literature  and 
life,  —  these  are  some  of  the  elements  that  make  for  good 
method  in  teaching  literature. 

A  few  instances  of  this  informal  treatment  of  literature  may 
make  for  greater  clearness.  Hawthorne's  David  Swan  is 
one  of  the  simplest  stories  in  his  Twice-told  Tales.  The 
author  announces  his  theme  at  the  beginning :  Events  big 
with  possibilities  often  brush  near  us  and  pass  us  by  without 
our  knowledge.  How  does  Hawthorne  illustrate  this  ?  Three 
possibilities,  wealth,  love,  and  death,  or  what  might  have  led 
to  each  of  these,  almost  come  to  David  while  he  sleeps  by  the 
roadside.  In  the  same  book,  in  the  story  of  Dr.  Heidegger's 
Experiment,  Hawthorne  gives  his  answer  to  the  question, 
Could  we  live  our  lives  over  again,  should  we  live  more  wisely? 
He  chooses  for  the  experiment  four  old  people  whose  lives  had 
been  such  conspicuous  failures  that  they  might  well  wish  for 
another  chance.  They  are  given  the  magical  water  from  the 
Fountain  of  Youth ;  they  drink,  find  their  youth  restored,  and 
forthwith  proceed  to  indulge  in  the  same  kinds  of  folly  as  had 
originally  wrecked  them.  In  the  climax  of  their  revels  they 
upset  the  water,  and  old  age  descends  upon  them  again. 
How  has  Hawthorne  prepared  for  this  introduction  of  the 
magical  ?  By  a  certain  uncanny  gloom  and  by  hints  of  magi- 
cal things  in  the  doctor's  office.  How  does  he  bring  the  scene 
to  an  end?  By  the  breaking  of  the  bowl  that  contains  the 
water.  His  use  of  the  mirror,  his  moralizing,  have  his  char- 
acteristic imaginative  and  speculative  touch. 

Browning's  Up  at  a  Villa  —  Down  in  the  City  introduces 
a  lively  and  volatile  Italian  who  would  like  to  live  in  the  city, 
but  cannot  afford  to  do  so.  How  do  we  know  he  is  volatile? 
What  pleasures  of  city  life  does  he  wish  for?  The  processions, 
the  noises,  the  gossip,  —  the  things  that  to  him  mean  life. 


372  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Why  is  the  city  too  expensive?  We  need  to  know  about  the 
heavy  taxes  imposed  on  food  in  Italian  cities.  What  lines 
or  phrases  indicate  these  things  ? 

But  bless  you,  it's  dear,  —  it's  dear !  fowls,  wine,  at  double 

the  rate. 
They  have  clapped  a  new  tax  upon  salt,  and  what  oil  pays 

passing  the  gate, 
It's  a  horror  to  think  of. 

His  delight  in  noise  is  as  na'ive  as  that  of  a  boy  at  the  circus : 

Bang  —  whang  —  whang   goes    the    drum,    tootlc-te-tootle    the 

fife: 
No  keeping  one's  haunches  still :    it's  the  greatest  pleasure 

in  life. 
Ere  you  open  your  eyes  in  the  city,  the  blessed  church  bells 

begin : 
No  sooner  the  bells  leave  off  than  the  diligence  rattles  in. 

What,  by  the  way,  is  "  the  diligence?  "  And  what  is  the 
"  Pulcinello-trumpet  "  mentioned  a  few  lines  farther  on? 
And  the  "  traveling  doctor  "  who  "  gives  pills,  lets  blood, 
draws  teeth  "  :  has  —  his  kind  disappeared?  And  the  church 
ceremonies,  in  church  and  on  the  street,  —  have  you  seen  any 
of  them?  Does  our  Italian  who  says,  "I  scratch  my  own 
(skull),  sometimes,  to  see  if  the  hair's  turned  wool,"  pay  any 
unconscious  tribute  to  the  beauty  of  the  country  ? 

You've   the   brown  ploughed   land   before,   where   the  oxen 
steam  and  wheeze, 

And  the  hills  oversmoked  behind  by  the  faint  gray  olive- 
trees. 

******* 

'Mid    the   sharp,    short   emerald   wheat,    scarce   risen    three 

fingers  well, 

The  wild  tulip,  at  end  of  its  tube,  blows  out  its  great  red  bell 
Like  a  thin  clear  bubble  of  blood,  for  the  children  to  pick  and 

sell. 


The   Vernacular  373 

Is  Browning  merely  laughing  at  our  childlike  friend  of  the 
poem?  Or  does  he  have  a  kindly,  smiling  sympathy  for  him? 
And  is  the  man  in  the  poem  like  the  mass  of  the  dwellers  in 
cities  to-day?  Is  Browning  preaching  a  lesson,  or  merely 
showing  us  a  type  ?  Do  the  lively  meter  and  the  free  and  easy 
colloquial  diction  fit  the  speaker  and  express  him  well  ? 

But  there  is  no  end  to  illustrations  that  might  be  used,  and, 
as  I  have  already  insisted,  there  is  no  set  form  that  holds  for 
all  selections  or  for  the  second  time  in  the  same  selection. 

COMPOSITION.  —  The  term  "  composition  "  is  applied 
to  the  grouping  of  figures  or  other  objects  in  painting  and 
sculpture,  and  to  the  grouping  of  ideas  in  language.  In  each 
case  the  end  sought  by  such  grouping  is  the  attainment  of 
certain  general  effects  in  the  whole  work.  It  is  of  the  grouping 
of  ideas  expressed  in  words  that  this  article  treats. 

Though  the  terms  "  rhetoric  "  and  "  composition  "  are 
frequently  found  together,  and  sometimes  confused,  they 
properly  designate  two  quite  distinct  phases  of  the  subject. 
Rhetoric  is  concerned  with  the  theoretical  side,  with  the  laws 
of  expression.  The  term  "  composition  "  means  (i)  the  appli- 
cation of  those  laws,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  in  spoken 
or  written  discourse,  or  (2)  the  discourse  itself.  A  treatise 
on  rhetoric  is  a  systematic  presentation  of  the  laws  of  dis- 
course, generally  illustrated  by  specimens  of  such  discourse. 
Composition,  being  the  application  of  these  laws,  is  therefore 
an  art,  as  distinguished  from  a  science.  It  is,  moreover,  an 
art  that  is  in  constant  employment  by  all  normal  people, 
in  either  its  spoken  or  written  form ;  though  the  difference  is 
very  great  in  the  skill  with  which  the  art  is  practiced  by  dif- 
ferent people. 

The  four  fundamental  processes  of  composition  are  dis- 
tinguished by  the  ends  they  have  in  view :  narration,  which 
aims  at  telling  a  story,  or  a  succession  of  incidents  ;  description, 
which  aims  to  describe  or  portray,  and  which  most  commonly 
makes  its  appeal  to  the  visual  imagination ;  exposition, 


374  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

whose  purpose  is  to  explain ;  and  argument,  whose  purpose  is 
to  prove  some  proposition.  While  the  distinctions  among 
these  forms  are  often  convenient  in  instruction,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  various  forms  are  seldom  found  entirely 
distinct.  Narration  and  description  are  often  found  in  the 
same  composition.  Moreover,  the  methods  of  the  two  are 
often  so  closely  alike  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  of  certain  pas- 
sages to  which  of  the  two  processes  they  belong.  Exposition 
and  argument  are  often  found  together,  though  the  line  be- 
tween them  is  easy  to  draw.  But  exposition  and  description 
again  often  overlap  each  other.  The  full  treatment  of  them 
belongs  to  the  theory  of  rhetoric  rather  than  to  the  art  of 
composition,  and  finds  no  place  either  in  the  modern  text- 
book of  composition  or  in  the  work  of  the  teacher.  Of  these 
four  processes  exposition  is  by  far  the  most  common  both  in 
written  and  in  spoken  language  ;  narration  comes  next  in  order 
of  frequency.  Except  in  literary  works,  descriptions  are 
usually  limited  to  a  few  words.  Except  in  formal  presenta- 
tions of  propositions  in  law,  science,  or  the  like,  arguments 
seldom  proceed  beyond  a  few  sentences. 

Composition  looks  rather  to  the  end  to  be  attained,  i.e. 
the  effect  to  be  produced,  than  to  the  employment  or  the 
practice  of  any  one  of  these  type  forms  of  writing,  though  the 
laws  of  each  must  often  be  consciously  used  by  the  writer. 
In  scientific  exposition  or  in  serious  argument,  however,  it 
is  necessary  to  adhere  more  closely  to  the  type. 

The  Teaching  of  Composition.  —  Within  the  past  twenty- 
five  years  the  art  of  composition  has  assumed  far  greater  im- 
portance in  the  schools  than  ever  before.  So  long  as  the  ideals 
of  classical  study  ruled  the  schools,  and  culture  was  thought 
to  come  principally  from  a  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin, 
expression  in  English  was  neglected  by  teachers.  With  the 
breaking  away  from  the  classical  tradition,  and  the  increased 
recognition  of  the  educational  value  in  the  study  of  modern 
life  and  environment,  the  minds  of  teachers  turned  more  and 


The    Vernacular  375 

more  toward  instruction  in  the  mother  tongue.  The  begin- 
nings of  the  movement  go  back,  indeed,  to  the  days  of  Franklin 
and  Jefferson.  But  the  general  movement  even  in  some  of  the 
less  backward  schools  cannot  be  said  to  have  become  estab- 
lished before  1885.  It  is  now  usual  to  find  composition 
given  a  large  share  of  the  time  of  the  program,  and  taught  as 
a  vital  subject  rather  than  in  the  occasional  and  perfunctory 
fashion  of  former  days.  It  is  now  recognized  as  a  subject  of 
the  greatest  utility,  inasmuch  as  every  one  depends  for  his 
pleasure  and  success  in  part  upon  his  ability  to  express  his 
ideas  agreeably  and  effectively.  It  conduces  to  clearness  and 
definitness  in  one's  thoughts,  to  care  in  ordering  and  expressing 
them.  To  have  tried  conscientiously  to  say  things  well  helps 
in  the  appreciation  of  things  well  said,  and  therefore  adds  to 
the  enjoyment  of  literature.  And  command  of  one's  native 
speech  puts  one  into  closer  touch  with  the  social  and  national 
life  about  him.  Such  are  the  principal  arguments  by  which 
the  present  important  place  of  composition  is  defended. 

Especially  noteworthy  are  the  changes  in  the  methods 
of  instruction.  Theory  has  given  place  to  practice ;  it  is 
fully  realized  that  one  can  learn  to  speak  and  write  only  by 
speaking  and  writing  under  stimulus  and  guidance.  Rhetori- 
cal rules  are  worth  nothing  except  as  applied.  The  earlier 
teaching  aimed  at  a  sort  of  lifeless  accuracy.  Verbal  and 
grammatical  correctness,  propriety  in  spelling  and  punctua- 
tion, were  sufficient.  The  present-day  teaching  of  the  better 
sort  judges  the  child's  efforts  not  only  for  these  things,  but 
for  the  interest  and  general  effectiveness  of  the  whole  com- 
position. Has  he  done  with  the  subject  what  he  should  have 
been  expected  to  do  ?  Does  his  composition  show  that  he  has 
remembered  and  thought ;  that  he  has  ordered  and  arranged  ? 
Such  is  the  standard  now  set  up,  adapted  though  it  must  be 
to  the  child's  age  and  capacity.  In  accordance  with  these 
standards  the  training  is  not  in  the  lesser  units  of  words  and 
sentences  so  much  as  in  paragraphs  and  whole  compositions. 


376  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Through  the  influence  of  modern  linguistic  scholarship 
another  influence  is  slowly  working  its  way  into  the  schools. 
Under  the  older — and  erroneous —  conception  of  language  as  a 
fixed  and  absolute  thing,  teachers  often  set  up  a  rigid  standard 
of  grammatical  and  rhetorical  propriety  that  could  not  be 
justified  either  from  literature  or  from  the  speech  of  a  large 
body  of  educated  people.  This  standard,  under  which  most 
teachers  of  the  present  day  were  educated,  is  slowly  giving 
way  before  the  conviction  that  a  considerable  latitude  must 
be  allowed  in  the  choice  of  words  and  expressions ;  the  con- 
viction that  it  is  often  impossible  to  say,  as  between  two  ex- 
pressions, that  one  is  right  and  the  other  is  wrong. 

More  and  more  the  tendency  is  to  have  the  pupil  write  of 
the  familiar  and  concrete,  of  the  things  within  his  own  daily 
experience,  instead  of  the  abstract  and  remote.  It  is  realized 
that  he  can  learn  to  write  and  speak  best  when  dealing  with 
simple  and  familiar  things.  Such  material  commonly  includes 
also  his  school  work  in  other  subjects  than  English.  Themes 
drawn  from  his  readings  in  literature  may  well  be  included, 
but  must  be  chosen  with  careful  reference  to  the  limitations 
of  children's  minds. 

Composition  is  recognized  as  a  difficult  art,  involving,  as  it 
does,  not  only  the  expression  of  ideas,  but  the  gathering  and 
arrangement  of  them.  So  far  as  possible  these  two  tasks 
should  be  divided.  When  the  subject  is  chosen,  it  should  be 
worked  over  and  discussed  in  various  lights,  until  the  pupils 
can  talk  of  it  with  some  degree  of  freedom.  The  writing  should 
be  begun  only  after  the  pupils  have  gained  some  confidence 
in  their  ability  to  talk  of  the  subject,  and,  in  the  later  years, 
are  able  to  outline  it  with  a  fair  degree  of  clearness.  Outlines 
made  by  the  pupils  themselves  are  an  aid  to  both  confidence 
and  clear  thinking. 

In  the  elementary  school  the  work  in  composition  may  be 
easily  carried  into  other  school  studies,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
usually  all  taught  by  the  same  teacher.  In  the  high  school, 


The   Vernacular  377 

however,  the  divorce  between  English  composition  and  other 
subjects  is  an  evidence  that  our  systems  are  still  imperfect. 
As  long  as  the  pupil  speaks  and  writes  carelessly  in  other  de- 
partments, so  long  will  the  work  of  the  English  teacher  fail 
to  form  good  habits.  Not  until  all  teachers  cooperate  can  we 
hope  for  the  best  results  attainable. 

As  to  the  time  of  beginning  the  training  in  composition, 
and  as  to  the  amount  to  be  required,  there  is  still  considerable 
divergence  both  in  theory  and  practice.  As  to  the  question 
of  how  much  writing  should  be  employed  there  are  again 
differences  of  opinion.  In  general,  however,  it  is  agreed  (i) 
that  short  exercises  are  better  than  long,  for  the  long  ones  tend 
to  produce  either  discouragement  or  prolixity ;  (2)  that  some 
writing  should  be  done  every  day,  the  subject  often  being 
drawn  from  some  of  the  school  studies ;  and  (3)  that,  if  con- 
sistent with  the  foregoing  rule,  the  pupils  should  not  write 
more  than  the  teacher  has  time  to  read. 

This  leads  naturally  to  the  question  of  criticizing  the  pupils' 
efforts  in  expression.  The  oral  work  should  be  carefully 
watched.  Errors  and  carelessness  alike  should  be  corrected, 
generally  when  made,  except  when  such  interruption  interferes 
with  the  pupil's  thinking.  The  criticism  of  the  written  work 
is  the  only  means  of  insuring  its  effectiveness.  A  few  general 
principles,  now  commonly  accepted,  may  be  stated.  Pupils 
are  to  be  made  as  much  as  possible  self-critical  and  self-helpful, 
though  care  must  be  taken  not  to  develop  their  self-criticism 
to  the  point  of  inhibition.  They  must  be  held  responsible 
for  things  once  learned.  Generally  the  written  work,  after 
the  teacher  has  corrected  it,  should  be  returned  to  them,  be 
worked  over  by  them,  and  again  submitted  for  inspection; 
for  if  the  criticisms  made  arc  not  applied,  they  are  useless. 
Work  obviously  careless  in  form  and  matter  should  not  be 
accepted,  if  the  teacher  would  have  the  pupils  respect  and 
value  the  subject.  But  the  criticism  must  not  stop  with  these 
more  mechanical  matters.  The  work  must  be  judged  for  its 


378  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ideas.  And,  speaking  relatively,  the  pupil  must  be  led  gradu- 
ally to  value  his  and  other  work  for  the  ideas  he  has  got  into 
or  from  it,  as  well  as  for  the  clearness  and  effectiveness  with 
which  the  ideas  are  conveyed.  For  this  there  is  no  better 
means  than  reading  the  compositions  aloud,  having  the  class 
as  a  whole  help  in  passing  judgment  upon  each  other's  per- 
formances. In  all  the  work  of  criticism  the  teacher's  true 
function  is  not  that  of  the  faultfinder,  but  of  the  stimulating 
and  helpful  guide.  If  freedom  and  accuracy  are  to  be  attained, 
there  must  be  a  certain  amount  of  drill.  Frequent  practice 
in  dictation  will  help  in  giving  control  and  facility  over  the  forms 
of  words  and  sentences.  Of  considerable  value  also  is  practice 
in  saying  the  same  thing  in  different  ways.  In  brief,  the  work 
will  be  effective  in  proportion  to  the  teacher's  skill  and  resource- 
fulness. 

The  prominence  given  to  the  work  in  composition  in  recent 
years  is  due  in  part  to  the  demands  of  the  colleges  that  their 
students  must,  at  entrance,  give  evidence  of  a  good  course  in 
English,  and  in  a  greater  degree  to  the  belief,  on  the  part  of 
the  high  school  teachers  themselves,  in  the  value  of  such  in- 
struction. It  is  especially  to  be  noted  that  those  high  school 
courses  which  are  not  directly  preparatory  to  college  commonly 
give  more  time  to  instruction  in  English  than  is  contained  in 
the  college  preparatory  courses.  For  a  considerable  period 
the  desire  to  unify  the  course  in  English,  and  especially  the 
literature  and  composition,  led  to  forced  relations  that  were 
not  to  the  advantage  of  either.  Pupils  were  required  to  write 
too  frequently  on  literary  subjects  that  were  beyond  their 
grasp,  with  the  result  that  the  compositions  were  insincere  and 
futile,  and  the  pupils'  love  of  literature  was  hindered  rather 
than  helped.  At  the  last  meeting  of  the  national  conference  on 
college  entrance  requirements  in  English  (1912),  in  which  both 
colleges  and  high  schools  were  fully  represented,  a  report  was 
adopted  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  tend  to  put  the  composition 
work  on  a  sounder  basis.  One  of  its  most  important  recom- 


The   Vernacular  379 

mendations  was  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  composition 
writing  should  be  upon  such  experiences  as  come  within  the 
pupil's  daily  life  and  observation.  That  the  report  was  in 
harmony  with  the  judgment  of  the  best  teachers  appeared 
from  the  way  in  which  it  was  received. 

TRAINING  IN  ORAL  SPEECH.— In  American  schools 
the  late  eighteenth  century  and  the  early  nineteenth  gave 
renewed  emphasis  to  the  importance  of  declamation  through 
the  increased  opportunity  for  the  public  oration  and  the  nu- 
merous occasions  for  display  of  oratorical  power.  The  text- 
books in  reading  and  literature,  as  well  as  even  those  in  spell- 
ing and  grammar,  became  filled  with  selections  suitable  for 
declamation.  This  replacing  of  the  old  reading  materials, 
chiefly  of  a  religious  character,  by  those  of  a  political,  social,  or 
dramatic  character,  had  great  influence  on  the  interests  and  the 
character  of  the  people.  Reading  and  such  literary  studies 
as  found  a  place  in  the  schools  came  to  be  used  chiefly  to  de- 
velop this  power  of  public  presentation,  rather  than  to  develop 
literary  appreciation,  or  power  to  use  the  English  language 
effectively  in  conversation,  speech,  or  composition.  It  was 
customary,  in  most  schools,  to  set  aside  one  afternoon  a  week, 
or  at  least  one  afternoon  a  month,  for  a  general  assembly  to 
be  devoted  entirely  to  declamation.  These  exercises  seem 
to  have  had  a  marked  effect  upon  the  public  speaking  of  the 
period,  but  an  effect  that  hardly  meets  with  modern  approval. 
In  general  the  selections  were  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the 
pupils  or  of  but  little  interest  to  them.  They  were  usually 
martial  verses  on  the  order  of  Bernardo  del  Carpio  and  Horatius 
at  the  Bridge,  or  the  fervid  perorations  of  an  impassioned 
oration,  such  as  Patrick  Henry's  Appeal  to  Arms.  Further- 
more, these  declamations  were  mechanically  delivered  in 
imitation  of  the  pattern  set  by  the  teacher,  and  unlucky  was 
the  pupil  who  misplaced  a  gesture  or  failed  to  inflect  his  voice 
in  the  exact  manner  which  his  model  indicated.  The  style 
developed,  not  only  in  the  pupils  but  in  adult  speakers,  was 


380  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

bombastic  and  flamboyant  —  the  style  that  even  now  appeals 
to  the  untutored  as  the  very  acme  of  oratorical  perfection. 
'When  we  hear  it  said  that  oratory  or  declamation  is  now  on 
the  decline,  we  must  surmise  that  the  reference  is  to  this  kind 
of  oratory  —  the  spread-eagle,  star-reaching  pyrotechnics  of 
our  forefathers. 

But  declamation  and  oratory  in  the  truest  sense  are  not 
declining,  but  rather  developing ;  more  refined  standards  are 
replacing  the  coarse  ones  of  half  a  century  ago,  and  sounder 
pedagogical  principles  are  followed  in  the  use  of  declamations 
in  the  schools  and  in  the  methods  employed  in  teaching  them. 
More  time  is  now  given  to  English  than  to  any  other  subject, 
and  also  the  child's  power  of  free,  oral  expression  is  developed 
as  the  foundation  for  all  effective  work  in  reading  and  com- 
position. In  company  with  conversation  lessons,  language 
instruction,  reproduction  of  stories,  and  dramatization,  the 
memory  or  primary  declamation  helps  to  develop  this  general 
power  of  effective  oral  delivery.  If  well  chosen,  these 
memory  selections  are  within  the  child's  comprehension,  are 
of  interest  to  him  in  their  subject  matter,  and  have  a  distinct 
literary  excellence  calculated  to  develop  taste.  The  purpose 
of  classroom  and  assembly  recitation  of  these  selections  is  not 
only  to  secure  confidence  before  an  audience,  but  to  give  a 
power  of  literary  appreciation  and  a  consequent  ability  to 
render  the  thoughts  of  the  author  in  a  sympathetic  manner. 
The  teacher  also  makes  use  of  the  declamations  as  a  basis 
for  the  correction  of  defects  in  pronunciation  and  articulation. 
As  a  rule,  very  little  is  done  in  the  matter  of  voice  training 
and  technical  elocution.  In  teaching  these  selections,  the 
methods  generally  adopted  are  calculated  to  increase  the  child's 
knowledge  of  words,  impress  him  with  a  love  for  the  beautiful 
in  literary  composition,  and  develop  his  general  power  of 
correct  and  pleasing  oral  expression,  rather  than  to  prepare 
him  definitely  for  public  speaking.  But  as  the  work  progresses, 
this  function  of  the  declamation  as  a  training  in  general 


The   Vernacular  38 1 

language  excellence  gives  way  to  a  more  distinctly  oratorical 
purpose.  The  declamation  is  used  more  and  more  as  a  con- 
venient means  of  having  a  pupil  speak  in  public  at  a  time  when 
he  cannot  be  expected  to  say  something  original. 

The  separation  of  elocution  from  the  general  training  in 
English  becomes  clearly  noticeable  in  the  secondary  schools. 
In  many  city  high  schools  and  private  academies  the  work  of 
elocution  is  in  the  hands  of  a  specialist,  and  is  not  regarded  as 
a  by-product  of  the  department  of  English  language  and  litera- 
ture. The  differences  between  the  structure  of  matter  meant 
to  be  spoken  and  that  designed  to  be  read  are  pointed  out, 
and  the  pupil  is  trained  to  have  a  definite  attitude  toward  the 
audience.  In  the  treatment  of  declamation,  the  method  is  dis- 
tinctly modern.  Whereas  a  few  decades  ago  the  pupil  was 
carefully  coached  to  imitate  his  master's  way  of  rendering 
a  selection,  the  plan  now  is  to  stimulate  rather  the  pupil's 
self-activity  and  to  expect  a  spontaneous  rendition  of  the 
declamation,  prompted  by  the  pupil's  own  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings. It  is  customary  for  the  pupil  to  analyze  the  piece  care- 
fully for  its  meaning  and  to  give  the  teacher  either  an  oral  or 
written  paraphrase  as  evidence  of  the  thought  he  gets  from  the 
author.  The  teacher  guides,  suggests,  and  keeps  up  the  inter- 
est, but  seldom  recites  any  passage,  for  he  is  seeking,  not  to 
impose  his  own  personality  and  mode  of  expression  upon  the 
pupil,  but  to  bring  out  a  sympathetic  rendition  of  an  intelligent, 
first-hand  interpretation.  The  pupil  is  made  to  realize  that 
he  must  faithfully  represent  to  an  audience,  by  his  voice  and 
gestures,  the  thoughts  of  another.  He  owes  a  duty  to  the 
author  and  to  his  hearers.  The  selection  is  a  living  message 
to  be  conveyed  to  others,  not  a  "  piece  "  to  be  memorized 
and  mechanically  ground  out  in  close  imitation  of  the  teacher. 
During  the  practice  with  declamations,  instruction  is  usually 
given  in  the  elementary  principles  of  elocution,  orthoepy,  and 
voice  management ;  and  practical  efforts  are  made  to  correct 
defects  of  delivery  ranging  all  the  way  from  stammering  and 


382  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

stuttering,  through  nasality  and  dialect,  to  mere  localism  and 
mispronunciation.  In  some  schools,  where  debate  and  ex- 
temporaneous speaking  are  taken  up,  the  declamation  is 
regarded  as  a  preparation  for  these  more  original  forms  of 
public  speaking. 

COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS  IN  ENG- 
LISH. —  Since  1885  the  preparation  for  college  in  English  has 
evoked  more  discussion  than  any  other  preparatory  subject. 
Its  prominence  is,  however,  comparatively  recent.  Long  after 
the  admission  requirements  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics 
were  definite  in  form  and  respectable  in  amount,  English  as  an 
entrance  subject  was  not  mentioned.  About  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  there  were  some  slight  beginnings. 
Nothing  appeared,  however,  in  the  direction  of  the  present 
full  view  of  English  as  a  preparatory  subject,  until  Harvard, 
in  1874,  required  both  literature  and  composition.  This  re- 
quirement was  the  germ  of  the  present  system.  "  Each  can- 
didate," said  the  Harvard  announcement,  "will  be  required 
to  write  a  short  English  composition  correct  in  spelling,  punc- 
tuation, grammar,  and  expression,  the  subject  to  be  taken 
from  such  works  of  standard  authors  as  shall  be  announced 
from  time  to  time.  The  subject  for  1874  will  be  taken  from 
one  of  the  following  works :  Shakespeare's  Tempest,  Julius 
Caesar,  The  Merchant  of  Venice;  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field;  Scott's  Ivanhoe  and  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel."  This 
plan,  with  various  modifications,  was  adopted  by  other 
colleges  :  by  Michigan  in  1878,  by  Cornell  in  1883,  by  Prince- 
ton in  1885,  by  Columbia  in  1891,  and  by  Yale  in  1894.  By 
1897  as  many  as  eighty  of  the  leading  colleges  had  adopted  the 
general  plan.  Some  of  the  colleges  examined  on  only  a  single 
author,  as  Cooper,  Irving,  or  Goldsmith.  But  gradually 
the  list  grew,  until,  by  1895,  ten  or  twelve  books  were  required 
by  many  of  the  colleges  in  place  of  the  half  dozen  of  the 
earlier  requirement.  There  was  still,  however,  great  diversity, 
not  only  in  the  books  required  by  the  various  colleges,  but  also 


The  Vernacular  383 

in  the  nature  of  the  examinations.  As  a  result,  in  a  subject 
at  best  so  indefinite  as  English,  the  fitting  schools  found  their 
task  seriously  complicated.  Various  attempts  were  made  to 
unify  and  standardize  the  requirements.  The  first  were  by 
the  New  England  Commission  of  Colleges  in  1885,  and  by 
the  Association  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools  of  the 
Middle  States  and  Maryland  in  1887.  In  1894  the  recom- 
mendations of  these  two  associations  were  brought  together 
and  a  revised  list  of  books  was  agreed  upon  by  both,  and 
adopted.  This  list  was  accepted  also  by  the  Association  of 
Southern  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools  and  by  the 
North  Central  Association.  The  Committee  of  Ten  appointed 
in  1892  by  the  National  Education  Association,  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  matter  of  secondary  curricula,  gave  especial 
attention  to  the  unification  of  the  English  requirements,  and 
also  to  the  formulation  of  a  course  of  study  and  of  the  prin- 
ciples which  should  govern  instruction  in  English. 

Since  1895  the  modification  of  the  requirements  has  been 
in  the  hands  of  a  National  Conference  on  College  Entrance 
Requirements  in  English.  This  conference  is  a  joint  com- 
mittee composed  of  delegates  from  the  college  and  prepara- 
tory school  associations  mentioned  above,  and  also  from  the 
New  England  Association  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools, 
and  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board  (q.v.}.  The 
reports  of  this  committee,  which  meets  at  least  every  three 
years,  are  referred  to  their  respective  associations  for  adop- 
tion. In  one  of  its  meetings  (1897)  it  was  agreed  that  the  Eng- 
lish course  in  the  high  schools  should  be  the  same  for  the  stu- 
dents who  were  not  going  to  college  as  for  those  who  were.  In 
this  and  succeeding  meetings  of  the  conference,  the  courses 
of  study  were  framed  by  the  conference  with  this  principle 
in  view.  Partly  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  and  partly  in 
acceptance  of  this  view,  the  high  schools  pretty  generally 
adopted  the  recommendations  of  the  conference ;  which  thus 
came  to  set  the  norm  or  standard  for  most  of  the  secondary 


384  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

instruction  in  English  throughout  the  country.  The  recom- 
mendations, though  frequently  modified  in  the  light  of  ex- 
perience, have  not  been  universally  satisfactory  at  any  time, 
and  are  not  so  at  present.  It  has  been  impossible  to  meet  the 
special  needs  of  all  pupils  and  the  special  tastes  and  judg- 
ments of  all  teachers.  But,  none  the  less,  the  work  outlined 
in  these  reports  is  substantially  the  course  of  study  followed 
in  almost  all  the  good  high  schools  and  fitting  schools  of  the 
country,  and  is  the  basis  of  the  entrance  examinations  in  prac- 
tically all  of  the  good  colleges  which  admit  either  upon  exam- 
ination or  by  certificate.  In  order  to  meet  the  needs  of  schools 
which  do  not  prepare  students  for  college,  there  has  been  re- 
cently formed  (1912)  a  larger  and  more  representative  body, 
called  the  National  Council  of  Teachers  of  English,  under  the 
general  auspices  of  the  National  Education  Association.  Its 
official  organ  is  The  English  Journal.  The  recommendations 
of  this  council  as  to  the  course  of  study  in  English  in  the 
high  schools  are  accepted  by  most  of  the  colleges,  and  are 
coming  to  set  the  norm  especially  for  non-preparatory  high 
schools. 

The  most  prominent  changes  in  the  recent  recommenda- 
tions of  the  conference  have  been  (i)  in  the  direction  of  em- 
phasizing non-literary  themes  as  subjects  for  composition,  and 
(2)  in  enlarging  the  list  of  books  from  which  choices  may  be 
made.  In  1905  the  conference,  in  response  to  a  general  and 
insistent  demand  for  "  more  freedom,"  enlarged  the  list  of 
books  "  for  reading  "  from  a  list  of  ten  required  to  a  list  of 
forty  out  of  which  ten  were  to  be  chosen.  In  1908  and  1909 
the  list  was  still  further  enlarged.  The  report  of  the  last 
conferences,  held  February  and  May,  1912,  and  making  recom- 
mendations for  the  next  three  years,  indicates  the  present 
status  of  the  subjects.  The  list  of  books  from  which  choices 
may  be  made  now  includes  several  hundred  titles,  the  greater 
number  of  them  in  the  field  of  fiction.  The  list  is  still  de- 
ficient on  the  side  of  informational  and  scientific  works. 


The  Vernacular  385 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  books  in  the  high  school  course  in  English  have  the  ethical 
as  a  dominant  interest  ? 

2.  What  books  have  instruction  as  their  main  interest  ? 

3.  What  books  or  poems  are  wholly  aesthetic  in  their  appeal? 

4.  What  background  of  general  knowledge  —  historical,   scientific, 
or  social  —  should  teacher  and  pupils  have  for  appreciating  books  like 
the  following :  Silas  Afarner,  Ivanhoe,  The  Tale  of  Two  Cities  (see  Chap. 
XIV  of  Coleridge's  Biographia  Liter  aria),  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  Henry 
Esmond,  etc. 

Is  much  of  such  background  needed  to  understand  the  book  ? 

5.  Make  out  a  list  of  reading  which  the  teacher  should  have  done 
before  teaching  some  one  of  these  books. 

6.  What  kind  of  "philosophical"  study   is   needed   to   appreciate 
Shakespeare  ? 

7.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  Shakespeare's  plays  were  written  to  be 
acted,  how  should  they  be  read  in  school  ?     How  much  place  should  be 
given  to  the  so-called  "philosophical"   interpretation  of  them ? 

8.  What  value  is  there  in  committing  to  memory  fine  passages  from 
literature  ? 

9.  What  are  the  functions  and  value  of  literary  criticism  for  the 
teacher  ?     For  the  pupil  ? 

10.  What  is  the  value  of  school  dramatics?     Should  classic  dramas, 
like  Shakespeare's,  be  employed  for  such  purposes  ? 

11.  Discuss  the  value  of  literary  biography  of  authors  in  the  school 
curriculum.     Will  it  help  the  pupil  to  understand  the  writings  of  Gold- 
smith ?     Of  Tennyson  ?     Of  Shakespeare  ? 

12.  What  reasons  are  there  for  training  pupils  carefully  in  writing 
clear  sentences  ?     In  making  clear  outlines  ? 

13.  Why  should  oral  and  written  composition  be  kept  in  close  re- 
lation with  other  work  in  English  ?     With  other  school  subjects? 

14.  In   what   ways   can   other   departments    lend    support    to   the 
English  ? 

15.  What  is  the  difference  between  "declamation"  and  oral  English? 

16.  What  is  the  modern  attitude  towards  "oratory"? 

17.  How  should  poetry  be  read  aloud  ? 

1 8.  Show  by  citations  that  modern  literature  is  democratic  in  its 
ideals.     Was  ancient  literature  so  ? 

IQ.  Make  out  lists  for  guiding  the  pupils'  reading  in  contemporary 
and  recent  literature. 

20.  Discuss  the  value  of  the  short  story  for  high  school  courses. 
2  c 


386  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

REFERENCES 

BRIGGS  and  COFFMAN.     Reading  in  the  Public  Schools.     Chicago,  1912. 
CARPENTER,  BAKER,  and  SCOTT.     The  Teaching  of  English.     New  York, 

1903. 

CHUBB,  P.     The  Teaching  of  English.     New  York,  1902. 
COLBY,  J.     Literature  and  Life  in  School.     Boston,  1906. 
Cox,  J.  H.     Literature  in  the  Common  Schools.     Boston,  1908. 
Harvard   College,   Reports  on  Composition  and  Rhetoric.     Cambridge, 

1895,  and  later. 

Twenty  Years  of  School  and  College  English.     Cambridge,  1896. 
HERRICK,  R.     Methods  of  Teaching  Rhetoric.     Chicago,  1898. 
LAURIE.     Language  and  Linguistic  Method.     Edinburgh,  1893. 
MACCLINTOCK,  P.  L.    Literature  in  the  Elementary  School.     Chicago, 

1908. 

SCUDDER,  H.  E.     Literature  in  the  Schools.     Boston,  1888. 
THURBER,  SAMUEL.      Papers   in   the  Academy    (Syracuse),   Education, 

Educational  Review,  and  School  Review. 
A  full  bibliography  up  to  1913  is  given  in  the  revised  edition  of  Carpenter, 

Baker,  and  Scott's  The  Teaching  of  English,  cited  above. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   CLASSICAL  LANGUAGES   AND   LITERATURES 

LATIN 

PLACE  IN  THE  CURRICULUM.  —  The  position  occupied 
by  Latin  in  the  curriculum  of  the  secondary  school  is  due 
primarily  to  tradition.  During  the  Middle  Ages  and  at  the 
Revival  of  Learning,  Latin  was  the  medium  of  communication 
in  science,  literature,  and  politics.  Consequently  it  was  the 
first  and  most  important  element  in  education  ;  supplemented 
by  Greek  and  mathematics,  it  formed  the  whole  curriculum. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  the  native  tongue  began  to  form  a 
small  part  of  the  course  of  study.  This  was  followed  in  the 
eighteenth  century  by  the  modern  foreign  languages,  and  in 
the  nineteenth  by  the  various  sciences.  Practically  all  the 
time  devoted  to  them  was  taken  from  that  allotted  to  Latin 
and  Greek.  The  process  has  continued  until  now  Greek  is 
omitted  from  the  curriculum  in  practically  all  public  high 
schools  and  in  most  private  ones,  and  Latin  has  been  reduced 
to  modest  proportions.  Latin  now  occupies  about  one  fifth 
of  the  total  time  of  the  secondary  schools,  but  it  has  to  main- 
tain itself  against  vehement  criticism  and  opposition.  The 
critics  maintain  that  Latin  is  not  a  "  practical  "  subject,  and 
that  the  results  of  Latin  teaching  are  entirely  disproportionate 
to  the  amount  of  time  which  it  demands.  The  defenders  of 
Latin  urge  two  main  reasons  for  its  retention  in  at  least  its 
present  condition :  (i)  its  value  as  a  mental  discipline,  (2)  its 
value  as  a  practical  subject. 

THE  VALUE  OF  LATIN,  or  of  any  subject  in  particular,  as 
a  mental  discipline,  has  been  much  impugned  in  recent  years, 

387 


388  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

particularly  by  the  psychologists ;  but  there  is  a  tendency  now 
apparent  to  recede  from  the  extreme  position  in  this  regard, 
and  there  is  abundant  testimony  from  unprejudiced  observers 
in  all  walks  of  life  to  the  value  of  Latin  as  a  training  instrument. 
For  above  every  other  subject  it  trains  (i)  the  process  of  obser- 
vation, (2)  the  function  of  correct  record,  (3)  the  reasoning 
power  and  general  intelligence  in  correct  inference  from  re- 
corded observations.  To  this  should  be  added  its  great  value 
in  developing  the  power  of  voluntary  attention. 

The  value  of  Latin  as  a  practical  subject  has  to  do  par- 
ticularly with  the  effect  of  the  language  in  the  cultivation  of 
English  style.  In  the  English  vocabulary  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  words  in  everyday  use  are  of  Latin  origin,  and  it  has 
been  estimated  that  two  thirds  of  the  Latin  vocabulary  of  the 
classical  period  has  in  some  form  or  other  come  over  into  Eng- 
lish speech.  For  the  correct  use  of  synonyms  in  English  and 
the  habit  of  expressing  one's  thoughts  clearly,  concisely,  and 
cogently,  a  discriminating  knowledge  of  Latin  is  indispensable, 
and  while  not  every  pupil  in  the  school  may  be  expected  to 
develop  a  good  style,  nevertheless  he  should  be  given  the 
necessary  foundation  for  it. 

When  we  turn  to  literature,  we  find  that  Latin  is  influen- 
tial everywhere  — •  particularly  in  our  classical  authors  —  by 
allusion,  by  quotation,  by  actual  domestication.  Many  of 
our  great  English  writers  are  permeated  with  Latin.  We  can- 
not expect  that  all  will  desire  to  feed  their  minds  on  the  works 
of  our  greatest  authors,  however  much  we  might  prefer  it ; 
but  certainly  we  should  not  deprive  them  of  one  of  the  most 
important  elements  in  their  enjoyment  should  they  be  so 
minded. 

The  criticism  of  the  results  of  Latin  teaching  has  borne  more 
heavily  in  recent  years,  and  teachers  are  coming  to  realize  that 
this  criticism  has  genuine  foundation.  There  has  been,  there- 
fore, much  discussion  as  to  improvement  of  method,  and  many 
suggestions,  particularly  by  editors  of  textbooks.  It  may  be 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     389 

said  in  general  that  the  tendency  of  these  suggestions  has  been 
toward  greater  emphasis  upon  oral  teaching  and  the  testing  of 
acquaintance  with  the  language  by  the  ability  to  read  its  ordi- 
nary forms  at  sight.  It  has  been  too  true  that  the  value  of  the 
exercise  in  translation,  which,  when  properly  done,  should  be 
very  great,  has  been  seriously  impaired  by  the  very  wide- 
spread use  of  English  translations,  a  practice  which  results  in 
slow  progress  on  the  one  hand,  and  dulled  moral  sense  on  the 
other.  Then,  too,  in  most  of  our  colleges  the  classes,  particu- 
larly in  the  earlier  years,  have  been  so  large  that  adequate 
personal  attention  to  individual  students  has  been  impossible, 
and  this  difficulty  is  becoming  more  and  more  serious  in  sec- 
ondary instruction  with  the  rapid  growth  of  our  public  high 
schools.  Administrative  officers  have  shown  a  curious  dis- 
inclination to  treat  languages  with  the  same  consideration 
that  is  extended  to  the  sciences.  While  it  is  accepted  without 
question  that  scientific  instruction  without  individual  labora- 
tory work  under  the  eye  of  laboratory  assistants  is  impossible, 
the  equally  obvious  fact  that  instruction  in  languages  without 
similar  practice  can  be  only  haphazard  and  slipshod,  is  either 
not  perceived  or  knowingly  neglected. 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING.  —  Naturally  in  the  teaching 
of  any  language  we  should  begin  with  the  essentials  of  gram- 
mar, together  with  sufficient  exercises  to  insure  the  complete 
learning  of  the  forms,  and  enough  of  the  syntax  to  make  the 
reading  of  simple  sentences  possible.  This  would  be  followed 
by  easy  reading,  and  then  by  more  difficult  reading,  until  the 
student  acquires  sufficient  mastery  to  read  with  some  ease 
whatever  he  would  naturally  come  in  contact  with.  And  this 
is  practically  (with  certain  restrictions)  what  has  been  fol- 
lowed for  centuries  in  the  teaching  of  Latin.  The  question 
has  been  chiefly  as  to  the  nature  of  the  instruction  in  the  first 
year  and  the  sequence  of  reading  material.  In  the  main 
the  colleges  have  dominated  the  high  school  curriculum  in 
America  by  their  requirements  for  admission,  and  thus  we  find 


39°  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

that  for  a  long  period  the  course  of  instruction  in  the  high 
schools  has  been  the  beginner's  book,  a  certain  amount  of 
Caesar,  certain  orations  of  Cicero,  certain  books  of  Vergil's 
jEneid.  When  the  high  school  course  has  been  four  years  in 
length,  as  is  the  case  almost  everywhere,  one  year  has  been 
devoted  to  every  one  of  these  four  subjects.  Where  the 
course  is  five  years,  or  six,  teachers  have  enlarged  it  by  the 
addition  of  Ovid,  Nepos,  Sallust,  and  in  some  cases  have 
increased  the  time  devoted  to  the  beginner's  book  so  as  to 
spend  upon  it  a  year  and  a  half. 

In  recent  years  there  has  developed  a  strong  feeling  that  the 
prescription  of  so  much  reading  has  a  deleterious  effect  upon 
the  teaching  in  the  schools,  and  that  better  results  could  be 
attained  if  there  were  less  definite  prescription  of  authors  and 
more  insistence  on  the  ability  to  translate  easy  Latin  at  sight. 

The  first  year  of  Latin  is  the  most  important  work  in  the 
whole  high  school  curriculum.  This  importance  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  pupil  is  studying  not  only  Latin,  but  the  phe- 
nomena of  organic  speech.  In  some  schools  in  Germany  and 
in  England  the  pupil  makes  his  first  acquaintance  with  a 
foreign  language  in  the  study  of  French ;  but  this  practice 
has  not  taken  root  in  the  United  States,  and  there  the  first 
serious  study  of  linguistic  expression  begins  in  the  Latin  class- 
room. 

Difficulties  of  the  Student.  —  Let  us  see  for  the  moment 
what  the  problems  of  the  Latin  student  are,  what  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking child  will  find  difficult  or  unusual.  First  and 
foremost,  he  will  be  struck  by  the  Latin  forms.  English  is 
practically  a  formless  language ;  the  few  terminations  remain- 
ing are  not  sufficient  to  form  a  foundation  for  the  careful  study 
of  the  expression  of  ideas  by  means  of  termination.  The 
pupil  will  now  for  the  first  time  have  to  distinguish  between  the 
various  cases  of  the  noun  and  the  various  tenses  and  moods  of 
the  verb.  This  comes  as  a  shock  to  the  average  English- 
speaking  child,  and  it  requires  months  upon  months  of  careful 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     391 

and  insistent  drill  before  the  expression  of  case  relations  by 
changes  in  termination  becomes  second  nature.  For  example, 
in  an  English  sentence  like,  "  The  boy  strikes  the  dog  with  a 
stick,"  outside  of  the  s  in  the  verb  no  indication  of  meaning  is 
given  by  any  termination,  and  the  three  substantives  would 
suffer  no  change  in  form,  no  matter  what  change  in  meaning 
might  be  brought  about  by  transposition.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  Latin  the  syntax  would  be  expressed  not  merely  by 
the  sense,  but  also  by  a  formal  difference  in  every  noun. 
Furthermore,  the  pupil  would  be  troubled  by  even  the  simplest 
syntactical  structure.  An  English  sentence  like,  "  The  father 
gave  his  son  some  money  that  he  might  buy  the  book,"  is 
comprehensible  to  the  child  without  any  serious  mental  effort ; 
but  in  the  Latin  sentence  he  must  become  acquainted  with  the 
idea  of  purpose  and  its  expression  and  the  use  of  mood  to 
take  the  place  of  the  auxiliary.  This  difficulty  is  immeasur- 
ably enhanced  when  "  to  buy  "  takes  the  place  of  "  that  he 
might  buy."  Another  difficulty  which  is  none  the  less  real  is 
that  of  pronunciation.  For  the  first  time  the  pupil  comes  into 
contact  with  what  is  essentially  the  Indo-Germanic  system  of 
sound  expression,  from  which  English  has  seriously  varied. 
Then,  too,  there  is  word  order  and  its  possibilities  in  an  in- 
flected language.  With  these  difficulties  staring  him  in  the 
face,  and  with  progress  made  exceedingly  slow  on  account  of 
the  necessity  of  accurate  thinking  along  several  lines  at  the 
same  time,  the  first-year  La  tin  taxes  the  patience,  the  ingenuity, 
and  the  skill  of  even  the  best  of  teachers.  And  in  the  United 
States  in  particular,  owing  to  conspicuous  administrative 
incompetence,  the  work  of  the  first  year  is  usually  in  the  hands 
of  the  most  inexperienced  teacher. 

The  Introductory  Work ;  the  Customary  Method.  —  The 
material  is  provided  in  the  numerous  first-year  books,  which 
show  almost  every  possible  idiosyncrasy  of  method.  It  may 
be  said  in  general  that  they  embody  the  carefully  thought  out 
schemes  of  the  individual  authors.  They  follow  two  main 


392  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

lines  of  presentation,  one  of  which  may  be  called  the  block 
system,  the  other  the  fragmentary  system.  In  the  latter  — 
and  by  far  the  more  influential  —  the  lessons,  particularly  the 
earlier  ones,  are  so  divided  that  fragments  of  declension  and 
fragments  of  conjugation  alternate  with  each  other ;  thus, 
either  the  nominative  singular,  or  the  nominative  and  accusa- 
tive singular,  or  the  nominative  singular  and  the  nominative 
plural  of  the  first  and  second  declensions  are  followed  by  the 
present  indicative,  singular  number,  or  third  person  singular 
and  plural,  as  the  case  may  be.  Subsequent  lessons  fill  out 
the  paradigms  of  the  first  and  second  declensions  and  the  first 
conjugation,  after  which  the  other  conjugations  and  the 
remaining  declensions  are  taken  up.  In  the  meantime  ele- 
mentary rules  of  syntax,  such  as  the  agreement  of  the  subject 
and  the  verb,  the  government  of  the  accusative  case,  the 
ablative  of  instrument,  the  ablative  of  place,  the  dative  of 
possessor,  the  objective  or  possessive  genitive,  the  use  of  ut  to 
express  purpose,  sometimes  the  use  of  cum  in  the  sense  of 
"  when,"  are  scattered  along  according  to  the  caprice  of  the 
author.  The  object  of  thus  breaking  up  inflectional  groups  is 
to  provide  early  in  the  course  reading  material  which  will  have 
in  itself  some  reason  for  existence,  and  thus  avoid  the  aridity 
of  the  old-fashioned  textbook.  In  the  former  class,  the  text- 
book gives  the  first  declensions  in  their  order,  supplementing 
them  only  by  so  much  of  the  verb  inflection  as  seems  necessary 
to  make  the  construction  of  sentences  possible ;  then  follow  the 
conjugations  in  their  order.  The  earlier  exercises  from  Eng- 
lish into  Latin  and  from  Latin  into  English  are  largely  confined 
to  the  translation  of  detached  forms.  The  critics  of  the  first 
system  maintain  that  it  divorces  things  that  belong  together ; 
those  of  the  second  that  it  makes  the  early  Latin  work  not 
merely  dull,  but  practically  hopeless,  because  the  pupils  see  no 
evidence  of  progress.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  superiority  of 
the  first  method  to  the  second  is  merely  specious,  and  the  frag- 
.mentary  acquisition  of  forms  carries  with  it  many  evils.  A 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     393 

third  method  of  presenting  forms,  advocated  by  a  few,  is  what 
one  might  call  the  topical  treatment.  The  pupil  begins  with 
the  study  of  a  case  throughout  all  its  formations,  and  after 
proceeding  through  the  declensions  he  takes  up  the  verb 
similarly.  Every  one  of  these  three  methods  requires  a  live 
teacher  to  make  it  successful,  and  practically,  therefore,  none 
shows  any  superiority  over  the  other.  Theoretically  the 
second  method  is  preferable,  supplemented  by  the  third 
wherever  feasible,  the  first  being  the  least  defensible  of  them 
all. 

The  selection  of  the  material  of  the  first  book  involves  the 
three  divisions  of  forms,  syntax,  and  vocabulary.  It  is  gener- 
ally agreed  that  unusual  forms  should  be  excluded,  on  the 
principle  that  only  those  in  most  common  use  are  vital,  while 
the  unusual  ones  can  better  be  learned  (if  learned  at  all)  where 
they  occur.  Consequently  the  old  apparatus  of  rule  followed 
by  exception  has  practically  disappeared,  and  the  beginner's 
book  lays  particular  stress  upon  the  normalities  of  language. 
This  principle,  however,  suffers  some  modification  in  practice. 
It  is  frequently  easier  to  learn  the  complete  series,  even  though 
some  of  the  elements  are  rare,  than  to  break  it  up  into  frag- 
ments ;  the  effort  of  mind  is  often  much  greater  in  the  second 
case.  The  terminations  are  best  learned  in  groups,  even 
though  examples  of  some  of  them  are  comparatively  infre- 
quent. Principal  parts  are  best  learned  complete,  though 
in  the  case  of  many  verbs  certain  of  them  are  never  found. 
In  the  main,  however,  the  principle  is  sound.  In  the  case  of 
syntax  the  situation  is  different.  Comparatively  little  syntax 
should  be  given  in  the  beginner's  books,  and  this  should  be 
not  necessarily  the  most  common ;  but  the  most  simple,  for 
the  learning  of  forms  taxes  primarily  the  memory,  while  the 
study  of  syntax  exercises  principally  the  reason.  Therefore 
the  indicative  constructions  should  appear  in  the  beginner's 
books,  and  only  those  uses  of  the  subjunctive  which  make  but 
slight  demand  upon  the  reasoning  power,  such  as  its  use  in 


394  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

wishes,  in  expressions  of  purpose  and  result,  and  little  else. 
It  is  customary  in  the  beginner's  books  to  devote  the  last  few 
lessons  to  the  more  elaborate  constructions ;  but  conditional 
sentences  and  the  whole  body  of  constructions  with  dum  and 
the  like,  quin,  quominus,  and  concessive  clauses  would  better 
be  deferred  to  the  second  year.  The  same  is  true  of  the  more 
involved  relative  constructions. 

The  choice  of  vocabulary  obviously  depends  upon  the  aim  of 
Latin  teaching  in  general.  If,  it  is  generally  argued,  we  taught 
pupils  to  speak  Latin  as  we  did  formerly,  we  should  naturally 
require  a  colloquial  vocabulary,  but  since  our  chief  aim  now 
is  to  give  the  means  of  reading  Latin  literature,  we  must  choose 
the  vocabulary  with  this  end  in  view.  A  number  of  beginner's 
books  claim  to  limit  the  vocabulary  to  the  words  in  most 
common  use  in  Caesar.  This  practice  is  sound,  because  it  has 
been  found  that  these  words  are  also  in  common  use  through- 
out the  literature,  while  birds  and  animals,  furniture  and  every- 
day occupations  would  leave  the  pupil  absolutely  helpless  be- 
fore a  page  of  any  Latin  author.  The  size  of  the  vocabulary 
for  the  first  year  should  be  about  500  words,  and  the  text- 
books usually  show  about  that  number.  But  no  fixed  list  of 
words  can  be  learned  completely  by  all  the  pupils,  and  a  certain 
margin  must  be  allowed  for  forgetfulness,  consequently  the 
beginner's  book  would  do  well  to  show  a  vocabulary  slightly 
in  excess  of  500. 

The  exercises  in  translation  are  usually  divided  into  Latin- 
English  and  English-Latin.  Some  teachers  hold  that  no 
translation  from  English  into  Latin  should  be  expected  until 
very  substantial  progress  in  the  learning  of  forms  has  been 
secured,  perhaps  not  until  the  middle  of  the  year ;  but  the 
weight  of  opinion  inclines  to  the  view  that  translation  from 
English  into  Latin  should  begin  with  the  first  lesson.  This 
work,  however,  is  very  much  more  difficult  than  translation 
from  Latin  into  English,  and  the  demands  in  vocabulary  and 
syntax  should  accordingly  be  lessened. 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     395 

The  Oral  or  Direct  Method.  —  Dissatisfaction  with  the 
results  of  the  traditional  method  have  led  in  recent  years  to 
the  employment  of  the  oral  or  direct  method.  The  advocates 
of  the  latter  insist  that  Latin  should  be  taught  as  if  it  were  a 
modern  spoken  language  ;  consequently  they  follow  in  general 
the  principles  of  direct  teaching  as  employed  in  the  teaching 
of  modern  languages.  Almost  from  the  very  beginning  Latin 
is  the  customary  language  of  the  classroom.  At  the  outset 
short  commands  and  questions  having  to  do  with  the  necessary 
activities  and  surroundings  of  the  classroom  form  the  means  of 
instruction.  The  pupils  are  required  to  answer  every  question 
in  Latin  and  to  follow  every  command  with  a  statement  of 
what  they  are  doing.  As  they  progress  the  range  of  vocabu- 
lary is  enlarged,  but  still  restricted  primarily  to  the  ordinary 
activities  of  life.  After  a  little  time  the  teacher  tells  the  class 
short  stories  in  Latin,  explaining  the  meaning  of  unfamiliar 
words  in  the  same  tongue  and  requiring  the  class  to  give  him 
back  the  story  in  such  Latin  as  they  can  command.  In  this 
method  translation,  whether  from  Latin  into  English  or  from 
English  into  Latin,  is  practically  unknown.  This  is  reserved 
for  the  period  when  the  pupil,  having  obtained  a  ready  com- 
mand of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Latin,  is  ready  to 
begin  that  comparison  of  Latin  and  English  idiom  which  ren- 
ders translation  so  valuable  an  exercise.  Drill  in  syntax  is 
obtained  partly  by  the  oral  exercises,  partly  by  written  work. 
To  provide  for  this  drill  the  teacher  may  require  his  pupils  to 
embody  such  and  such  constructions  in  the  written  work, 
while  in  the  oral  work  he  may  have  the  various  ideas  expressed 
first  in  one  fashion  and  then  in  another,  turned  from  active 
to  passive,  or  from  the  independent  to  the  dependent  form. 
Short  narratives  composed  of  independent  sentences  may  be 
rewritten  so  as  to  involve  various  kinds  of  subordination.  The 
effect  of  such  training  is  to  make  the  forms  of  the  Latin  lan- 
guage second  nature  to  the  pupils,  and  to  reduce  by  constant 
practice  the  strain  upon  the  memory.  The  method  requires  a 


396  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

great  deal  of  ingenuity  and  readiness  on  the  part  of  the  teacher, 
for  every  opportunity  afforded  by  any  chance  remark  of  the 
pupil  must  be  improved  at  once ;  but  in  the  hands  of  a  com- 
petent teacher  the  results  are  claimed  to  be  vastly  superior  to 
those  of  the  old  method.  After  some  months  the  pupils  have 
a  greater  grasp  of  the  forms  and  easy  syntax  of  the  language, 
and  are  then  prepared  to  go  on  to  serious  reading  with  much 
greater  ease.  The  chief  drawback  of  the  direct  method  is  one 
of  time.  The  earlier  stages  require  a  great  deal  more  time 
than  is  required  by  the  old  method,  but  the  advocates  of  the 
new  method  maintain  that  what  is  lost  in  speed  is  more  than 
gained  in  definiteness  and  quality  of  knowledge,  and  that  in 
the  subsequent  years  the  previous  delay  is  much  more  than 
made  up.  One  of  the  important  results  of  this  method  is 
that  pupils  feel  that  they  have  a  certain  control  of  the  language 
and  are  thus  relieved  of  the  temptation  to  use  unfair  means  in 
preparation. 

Very  recently  in  the  United  States  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  modify  the  traditional  method  by  adding  to  it  some 
of  the  features  of  the  new  method.  Recent  textbooks  give 
more  attention  to  colloquial  features,  and  the  vocabulary  of 
the  earlier  lessons  has  to  do  with  the  ordinary  activities  of 
life.  But  this  choice  of  vocabulary  is  intended  merely  to  facil- 
itate the  colloquial  handling  of  the  language  by  the  pupils, 
and  is  expected  to  give  way  to  the  normal  literary  vocabulary 
as  soon  as  the  serious  reading  of  Latin  literature  is  begun. 

Pronunciation.  —  Whatever  method  is  employed,  the  initial 
difficulty  is  that  of  pronunciation.  The  Roman  method  is 
commonly  employed.  Objections  are  occasionally  made  to  it, 
but  its  foundation  is  secure  both  in  knowledge  and  in  in- 
tellectual honesty.  It  is  frequently  said  that  we  do  not  know 
how  the  Romans  pronounced.  This  is  true  only  to  the  extent 
that  those  who  have  not  actually  heard  a  modern  language 
do  not  know  how  it  is  pronounced.  We  have  a  fairly  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  sounds  of  the  Latin  letters,  and  we  have 


Tlie  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     397 

special  directions  as  to  the  position  of  the  organs  of  speech  in 
articulation.  While  some  of  these  directions  come  from  a 
comparatively  late  period,  —  as  late,  in  fact,  as  the  sixth 
century  A.D.,  —  yet  the  laws  of  linguistic  development  show 
conclusively  that  the  directions  of  this  period  involve  certain 
preceding  conditions  which  can  be  postulated  with  accuracy. 
To  determine  Roman  pronunciation  we  have,  besides  the 
directions  of  the  grammarians  just  alluded  to,  transliterations 
of  Greek  words  into  Latin  and  of  Latin  words  into  Greek. 
We  have  inscriptional  evidence  as  to  the  length  of  the  vowels, 
occasional  remarks  in  Latin  literature  touching  upon  pro- 
nunciation, and  the  evidence  presented  by  the  Romance 
languages,  which  modified  in  transition  the  Latin  sounds 
after  a  definite  manner.  We  are  able,  therefore,  to  give  in  the 
textbooks  the  sounds  of  the  Latin  letters  with  practically  as 
much  certainty  as  we  can  the  sounds  of  a  modern  language  in 
textbooks  for  foreign  use.  To  the  ear  of  a  Cicero  a  modern 
Latinist  would  speak  with  an  "  accent,"  but  he  would  be 
understood.  It  is  the  business  of  the  teacher  to  show  in  pro- 
nunciation a  careful  attention  to  exact  enunciation  and  to 
require  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  the  same  accuracy.  The 
pupil  should  never  hear  a  Latin  word  mispronounced  by  the 
teacher.  The  Latin  that  is  to  be  translated  should  if  possible 
be  read  aloud  by  the  pupil,  and  such  practice  should  be  con- 
tinuous. A  little  careful  practice  every  day  is  better  than  a 
great  deal  at  intervals.  The  teacher  should  pay  attention 
particularly  to  the  quantities  of  all  the  vowels  in  his  own 
enunciation  and  to  syllabic  division ;  the  pupil,  however, 
should  not  be  forced  to  learn  anything  but  the  quantity  of 
terminations  and  penultimate  syllables.  The  former  should 
be  learned  in  the  acquisition  of  the  forms,  the  latter  on  meeting 
with  the  new  word.  Inasmuch  as  Latin  accent  depends  upon 
the  length  of  the  penult,  it  is  not  necessary  to  require  a  careful 
marking  of  the  earlier  syllables  in  the  word,  except  where  it 
is  an  obvious  derivative  of  a  form  already  known.  Hidden 


398  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

quantities,  so  called,  should  not  be  required  of  the  pupils, 
but  the  teacher  should  be  careful  to  pronounce  them  correctly 
as  far  as  our  knowledge  extends. 

The  Later  Reading.  —  In  many  of  the  older  English  schools 
and  in  those  American  schools  with  a  curriculum  of  more  than 
four  years,  the  introductory  work  extends  over  into  the  second 
year ;  but  in  the  new  English  schools  and  in  the  vast  majority 
of  American  schools  the  reading  of  genuine  Latin  begins  in 
earnest  with  the  beginning  of  the  second  year.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  curriculum  for  subsequent  years  differs  in  different 
countries.  In  general,  Nepos  and  Caesar  are  taken  up  first, 
and  then  a  mixed  combination,  composed  mainly  of  selections 
from  Cicero,  Ovid,  and  Vergil,  but  with  possible  substitutions 
of  Livy,  Sallust,  and  Terence,  has  been  the  habit.  In  the 
United  States  up  to  very  recently  the  almost  universal  prac- 
tice has  been  to  devote  the  second  year  to  Caesar,  the  third 
to  Cicero,  the  fourth  to  Vergil.  The  amount  of  Caesar  pre- 
scribed (four  books)  has  proved  to  be  a  very  severe  task  for 
the  ordinary  high  school  class.  It  has  involved  a  definite 
advance  every  day,  and  it  has  thus  been  impossible  in  many 
cases  to  take  account  of  weak  students  or  to  linger  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  thoroughness.  The  plan  recently  adopted 
decreases  the  amount  of  reading  specifically  required  and  lays 
increased  emphasis  upon  reading  at  sight  and  the  acquisition 
of  additional  vocabulary. 

Transition  to  Ccesar.  —  The  transition  from  the  beginner's 
book  to  Caesar  is  difficult,  and  the  pupil  is  apt  to  show  a  weak- 
ness entirely  unexpected  from  the  work  of  the  previous  year. 
This  is  due  to  the  complexity  of  the  periodic  sentence.  Word 
order  and  the  various  devices  of  subordination  give  a  great 
deal  of  trouble.  At  the  outset  the  teacher  must  be  content 
with  short  lessons  in  which  attention  is  paid  particularly  to 
the  new  constructions  and  the  new  words.  He  should  also 
devote  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  working  over  the  Latin 
sentence  into  genuine  English.  The  class  should  be  drilled 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     399 

in  the  difference  between  Latin  and  English  idiom,  and  should 
be  required  to  translate  at  least  the  review  passage  into  cor- 
rect English.  The  work  done  during  the  class  hour  should 
be  of  two  kinds :  the  lesson  of  the  previous  day  should  first 
be  reviewed,  and  the  rest  of  the  hour  should  be  devoted  to  a 
preliminary  sight  translation  of  the  work  of  the  next  day  under 
the  guidance  of  the  teacher.  As  far  as  possible,  the  home 
work  should  be  restricted  to  the  study  of  syntax  (often  in 
written  exercises)  and  vocabulary.  Every  now  and  then  the 
pupils  should  be  required  to  write  out  in  class  the  transla- 
tion of  a  small  portion  (if  only  four  or  five  lines)  of  the  day's 
lesson,  and  these  written  translations  should  then  be  criticized 
by  the  teacher  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  English  expression. 
One  such  exercise  is  worth  a  dozen  oral  translations  for  the 
appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  of  the  difference  between 
Latin  and  English  expression.  The  teacher  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  second  year 
the  most  important  part  of  the  training  is  the  development  on 
the  part  of  the  pupil  of  the  sense  of  style,  by  which  is  meant 
good  English  as  an  offset  to  good  Latin.  If  the  advantage 
claimed  for  the  study  of  Latin  in  appreciation  of  English  style 
is  to  be  secured,  it  can  be  done  only  in  this  way. 

Ccesar  furnishes  particular  problems.  In  the  main  his 
narrative  is  simple,  concrete,  narrow  in  range  of  ideas,  and 
easily  followed.  In  fact,  no  author  in  the  whole  Latin  litera- 
ture is  better  suited  for  the  reading  of  the  second-year  Latin. 
But  Caesar  shows  a  fondness  for  the  insertion  of  speeches  in 
what  is  called  indirect  discourse.  These  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  narrative,  and  could  be  omitted  without  disturbance. 
The  length  of  these  speeches  in  the  first  book  has  led  many 
teachers  to  begin  with  the  second  book.  Such  a  practice  is 
faulty  in  principle ;  and,  inasmuch  as  the  speeches  are  not 
necessary  to  the  narrative,  it  is  far  better  to  begin  with  the 
first  book,  and  for  the  teacher  either  to  translate  or  to  para- 
phrase the  speeches  as  they  occur  in  order  merely  to  give  the 


400  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

setting  of  the  story.  A  good  deal  of  stress  has  been  laid  upon 
the  ability  of  the  pupil  to  turn  direct  discourse  into  indirect 
discourse  and  the  reverse,  but  it  should  be  remembered  that 
Caesar  is  the  only  author  whose  style  is  characterized  by 
indirect  discourse  in  mass,  and  that,  so  far  as  the  learning  of 
Latin  is  concerned,  the  time  devoted  to  the  intricacies  of 
indirect  discourse  would  much  better  be  devoted  to  more 
extended  reading.  Nevertheless,  until  we  are  prepared  to 
give  up  Caesar,  some  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  indirect 
discourse,  and  the  speeches  might  well  be  reviewed  toward  the 
end  of  the  year,  when  Caesar's  story  is  being  studied  as  a  whole. 

In  studying  Caesar  due  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  de- 
velopment of  his  narrative  and  to  the  Roman  art  of  war. 
Pupils  might  be  required  after  a  compaign  to  write  out  an 
account  of  it,  or  they  might  be  required  to  plan  or  describe  a 
battle.  Some  attention  may  be  paid  to  Caesar  as  a  man,  his 
dealings  with  his  troops,  his  attitude  toward  the  State,  the 
circumstances  which  led  to  the  Civil  War.  But  of  course 
these  studies  should  be  supplemental  merely ;  for  after  all, 
while  Caesar  is  history,  he  is  being  read  primarily  to  learn 
Latin.  If  the  plan  of  preparation  indicated  is  followed,  no 
particular  effort  need  be  made  to  develop  the  power  to  trans- 
late at  sight,  but  a  period  may  be  devoted,  perhaps  as  often 
as  once  a  week,  to  sight  translation  only.  The  passage  read 
may  be  merely  a  further  section  of  the  advance  narrative,  or 
interesting  passages  may  be  selected  from  the  later  books 
or  from  any  other  Latin  of  approximately  equal  difficulty. 

During  this  year  much  attention  must  be  paid  to  prose 
composition,  and  as  this  important  exercise  is  for  the  purpose 
of  systematic  grammatical  study,  it  should  be  done  systemati- 
cally from  the  beginning.  The  exercises  should  be  graded 
in  difficulty,  and  should  follow  a  definite  plan  of  syntactical 
development.  They  should,  accordingly,  not  be  merely 
based  upon  a  small  section  of  the  text.  All  that  can  be  ex- 
pected is  that  the  vocabulary  should  be  that  of  the  stage  of 


T/ic  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     401 

study  and  that  the  style  should  be  narrative.  If  the  subject 
can  be  made  either  identical  with  what  the  student  is  reading, 
or  similar  to  it,  so  much  the  better.  It  is  the  habit  of  many  to 
devote  one  period  a  week  to  prose  composition.  This  is  theo- 
retically objectionable.  It  is  better  that  a  short  exercise  should 
be  done  every  day.  Review  exercises  embodying  a  number  of 
principles  previously  studied  may  occupy  the  period  every 
now  and  then  ;  but  one  period  a  week  devoted  to  Latin  com- 
position involves  too  long  an  interval  between  efforts.  Oral 
composition  in  connection  with  the  reading  of  the  day  may 
often  be  productive  of  excellent  results. 

When  some  of  the  Lives  of  Nepos  are  substituted  for  a 
portion  of  the  Ciesar,  the  same  general  principle  should  be 
followed  in  the  teaching,  but  the  supplementary  work  would 
of  course  be  different.  Nepos  is,  however,  not  so  suitable  as 
Caesar  for  this  stage,  because  his  vocabulary  is  much  wider 
and  involves  many  unusual  words,  and  many  of  the  concep- 
tions are  abstract.  Nor  docs  the  brevity  of  the  episodes 
serve  to  counterbalance  the  greater  complexity  of  the  periodic 
sentence. 

Cicero.  —  Ordinarily  Caesar  is  followed  by  Cicero.  Cicero 
not  only  represents  the  highest  point  of  Latin  classical  style, 
but  he  was  the  greatest  Roman  orator  and  an  important  figure 
in  the  death  struggle  of  the  Republic.  The  orations  usually 
chosen  are  the  four  against  Catiline,  the  one  on  Pompey's 
command,  and  the  one  for  the  poet  Archias.  The  orations 
against  Catiline  are  the  easiest  of  all,  and  have  an  important 
political  significance.  The  Pro  Lcgc  Manilla,  in  addition  to 
being  a  comparatively  early  speech,  marks  the  beginning  of 
Pompey's  growth  as  a  great  figure,  and  also  forms  a  good 
opportunity  to  study  the  rhetorical  elements  in  the  orator's 
style.  The  Pro  Archia  is  in  effect  a  eulogy  of  Greek  literature 
and  a  wonderful  example  of  the  panegyric  style.  Sometimes 
the  teacher  prefers  to  read  a  different  set  of  speeches  for  the 
purpose  of  focusing  the  attention  of  the  pupils  upon  some 


402  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

\ 

particular  side  of  Cicero's  multifarious  career,  and  many 
teachers  like  to  substitute  for  some  of  the  speeches  men- 
tioned selections  from  Cicero's  correspondence,  chosen  either 
to  show  the  great  orator's  human  side  or  to  throw  sidelights 
upon  the  history  of  the  period.  Some  teachers  regard  Cicero 
as  dull  and  uninteresting  to  pupils,  and  prefer  at  least  to 
begin  the  third  year  with  Vergil.  This  apparently  unpeda- 
gogical  practice  is  defended  on  the  ground  that  Vergil,  even  if 
not  thoroughly  understood,  is  interesting  on  account  of  the 
narrative,  that  his  style  is  not  difficult,  and  that  outside  of 
the  strangeness  of  the  poetical  dress,  the  narrative  moves 
quickly  and  easily.  Moreover,  the  syntax  on  the  whole  is 
easier  than  that  of  Cicero,  because  of  the  absence  of  involved 
sentences.  Others  begin  the  third  year  with  Vergil,  and 
after  a  time  they  take  up  Cicero,  completing  both  Cicero  and 
Vergil  in  the  fourth  year.  But  this  is  all  pedagogically  un- 
sound. Vergil  should  be  deferred  to  the  fourth  year,  be- 
cause his  writings  are  pure  literature,  and  need  for  proper 
appreciation  and  enjoyment  as  much  maturity  of  mind  as  can 
be  brought  to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  Cicero  makes  but 
small  demands  upon  the  mental  maturity  of  his  readers.  In 
teaching  Cicero  it  is  proper  to  go  more  into  detail  about  the 
history  of  the  later  years  of  the  Republic  and  the  condition  of 
parties  at  Rome.  The  work  of  the  Caesar  year  in  this  regard 
might  well  be  amplified,  and  the  attempt  made  to  give  the 
pupils  some  rational  idea  of  the  workings  of  the  Roman  con- 
stitution, but  the  main  stress  should,  of  course,  be  laid  upon 
the  interpretation  of  the  speeches  themselves.  The  teacher 
should  possess  a  great  deal  of  imagination,  because  Cicero  is 
serious,  ironical,  humorous,  jesting,  or  playful  in  turn,  and  his 
invective  on  the  one  side  is  offset  by  the  deepest  pathos  on  the 
other.  Very  often  the  point  of  the  passage  depends  on  the 
order  of  the  words  or  the  application  of  a  particular  word. 
References  that  seem  blind  can  be  lighted  up  by  modern  in- 
stances. Cicero's  personal  character  and  the  main  facts  of 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     403 

his  personal  life  should  not  be  overlooked,  and  the  teacher 
should  try  to  lead  his  pupils  to  some  understanding  of  the  man 
whose  soul  was  torn  in  two  directions,  who  felt  always  the 
conflict  between  inclination  and  duty,  who  followed  a  sinking 
cause  with  his  eyes  open  and  remained  true  to  his  convictions 
even  at  the  cost  of  life. 

Ovid.  —  When  Ovid  is  read,  whether  after  Caesar  or  Cicero, 
it  serves  as  an  introduction  to  Latin  poetry  and  to  ancient 
mythology.  It  also  relieves  the  early  study  of  Vergil  of  the 
drudgery  usually  attendant  upon  the  shift  from  prose  to 
verse,  and  makes  it  possible  to  treat  Vergil  as  literature  from 
the  beginning.  Selections  from  the  Metamorphoses  are 
usually  chosen,  because  the  narrative  is  easy.  The  chief 
difficulty  is  one  of  word  order.  To  relieve  this  some  editions 
have  the  earlier  selections  rewritten  in  prose  order.  Scansion 
also  is  a  serious  exercise  for  most  pupils,  even  when  they  have 
been  carefully  trained  in  pronunication  from  the  beginning. 
Most  teachers  are  content  if  some  appreciation  of  rhythm  is 
developed,  and  pay  little  attention  to  the  conflict  between 
verse  and  word  accent  that  regularly  obtains  in  the  first  part 
of  the  verse.  Others  maintain  that,  as  Latin  is  a  language  of 
almost  "  level  stress,"  the  verse  will  scan  itself,  if  the  words 
are  pronounced  as  they  should  be  pronounced  in  prose.  Few 
teachers,  however,  are  able  to  reach  this  point  of  perfection, 
even  in  their  own  scanning. 

Vergil.  —  It  has  been  objected  that  because  the  works  of 
Vergil  represent  the  highest  reach  of  the  Roman  imagination 
and  the  most  finished  product  of  Roman  literary  art,  they 
should  be  reserved  for  the  later  period  of  study,  when  the 
attainments  as  well  as  the  maturity  of  mind  of  the  student 
are  greater.  If  we  were  sure  that  our  students  were  going  to 
continue  the  study  of  Latin  for  some  years,  this  objection  would 
weigh ;  but  the  great  majority  of  secondary  pupils  terminate 
their  study  of  Latin  with  the  high  school  course,  and  it 
seems  indefensible  that  any  should  give  up  Latin  after  four 


404  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

years'  study  without  having  had  the  opportunity  to  read 
Vergil. 

Since  most  American  high  schools  prepare  for  the  college 
examinations  at  the  end  of  their  course,  it  becomes  necessary 
in  the  last  year  to  devote  considerable  attention  to  a  review  of 
grammar  and  syntax.  Vergil,  however,  is  not  well  suited  for 
this.  His  style  is  in  general  very  simple ;  subordination  is 
conspicuous  by  its  absence ;  the  subjunctive  constructions 
that  are  so  common  in  all  Latin  prose  are  comparatively  rare. 
The  syntax  of  the  cases  can,  it  is  true,  be  studied  with  some 
effect  because  most  of  the  so-called  poetic  usages  have  to  do 
with  case  constructions ;  but  these  are  the  easiest,  after  all, 
and  the  pupil  needs  most  to  review  the  construction  of  the 
verb.  This  is  best  accomplished  by  the  careful  writing  of 
Latin  during  the  whole  of  the  last  year. 

The  selection  usually  read  is  the  first  six  books  of  the  sEneid. 
This  is  justified,  first,  by  its  extreme  interest  for  all  kinds  of 
pupils,  secondly,  by  the  fact  that  neither  the  Bucolics  nor  the 
Georgics  treat  matters  of  universal  appeal.  The  subject 
and  the  vocabulary  of  the  Bucolics  were  exotic  to  the  Romans 
themselves.  That  of  the  Georgics  is  too  specialized  to  warrant 
any  great  attention  on  the  part  of  high  school  pupils.  The 
first  six  books  of  the  jEneid  are  without  question  the  most 
important  part  of  this  poem,  and  they  have  a  world  interest 
which  is  hot  so  much  felt  in  the  latter  books. 

In  teaching  Vergil  the  aims  are  altogether  different  from 
those  that  dominate  the  teaching  of  Caesar  and  Cicero.  Here 
is  no  place  for  the  study  of  military  operations,  the  colonial 
system  or  method  of  government,  nor  is  there  any  occasion 
for  investigation  of  party  feuds  and  social  relations.  Since 
the  Roman  epic  is  a  purely  literary  creation,  stress  should  be 
laid  as  far  as  possible  upon  the  literary  element.  The  ancient 
mythology,  the  ancient  simplicity  of  life,  the  ancient  morality, 
all  claim  attention  ;  but  these  are  subordinate  to  the  far- 
reaching  literary  interest  which  Vergil  exercises  upon  all 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     405 

subsequent  authors.  Most  of  the  school  editions  contain 
copious  parallel  passages  from  later  literature.  In  many 
cases  these  are  not  genuine  parallels,  and  the  pupil  gets  either 
no  impression  or  only  a  very  vague  one  from  reading  them. 
This  ought  not  to  be  the  case.  An  attempt  should  be  made 
to  focus  the  attention  of  the  students  upon  certain  important 
features  of  English  literature  and  upon  certain  particular 
authors  who  have  been  under  classic  influence.  With  that  in 
view  it  would  be  well  to  treat  at  greater  length  the  influence 
of  Vergil  upon  Shakespeare,  upon  Tennyson,  upon  Milton,  and 
so  forth.  This  can  be  done  usually  with  the  material  provided 
in  the  editions.  The  pupils  should  also  be  taught  throughout 
to  visualize  the  scenes,  to  form  their  own  judgments  as  to 
the  narrative  in  its  various  stages,  to  become  independent  in 
attitude.  Here,  too,  extreme  care  should  be  exercised  in 
translation.  Poetic  language  should  be  rendered  poetically. 
It  will  be  the  first  experience  of  most  students  in  distinguishing 
what  is  prosaic  in  expression  from  what  is  poetic,  and  the  fact 
that  Latin  verse  differs  from  Latin  prose  will  be  better  under- 
stood if  the  difference  between  English  prose  and  English  verse 
is  also  shown.  Images  and  metaphors  should  not  be  washed 
out.  Due  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  artistic  setting, 
the  picturesque  qualities  of  every  scene.  The  teacher  should 
never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  in  teaching  Vergil  he  is  teach- 
ing the  principles  of  literature  in  general,  just  as  in  the  earlier 
years  of  the  course  he  was  teaching  universal  grammar.  In 
this  way  Vergil  ought  to  be  not  merely  the  proper  culmination 
of  the  secondary  Latin  course,  but  also  an  important  element 
of  the  pupil's  general  culture. 

Other  Selections.  —  With  a  longer  course  Sallust's  Catilina 
might  be  read  as  a  foil  to  Cicero's  Catilinarians.  Variety 
may  also  be  attained  by  selections  from  Terence  or  Livy,  or 
by  more  extended  anthologies,  a  large  number  of  which  are 
now  available,  adapted  to  the  wants  of  pupils  of  different 
grades. 


406  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

GREEK 

PURPOSE  AND  VALUE.  —  It  is  well  to  begin  with  a 
clear  idea  of  the  end  in  view  in  learning  Greek,  as  the  first 
regulator  of  method  in  teaching  it.  Complete  agreement  as 
to  that  end  there  has  probably  never  been ;  and  in  four  cen- 
turies views  have  undergone  many  changes.  The  carefully 
limited  statement  of  the  Prussian  Lehrplan  of  1901  is :  "  An 
acquaintance,  based  on  adequate  knowledge  of  the  language, 
with  a  certain  number  of  literary  works  of  special  importance 
for  content  and  form,  and  by  this  means  an  introduction  to 
the  thought  and  civilization  of  ancient  Greece."  Here  is 
not  a  word  that  suggests  any  other  purpose  in  studying 
Greek  than  in  studying  Chinese ;  the  official  directions  to 
teachers  hardly  touch  upon  what  is  really  the  heart  of  the 
teacher's  task ;  they  tacitly  assume,  in  the  traditional  way, 
that  learning  a  foreign  language  is  a  radically  different  process 
if  the  language  is  ancient.  Current  formulas  in  England  and 
America,  however  various  in  form,  fall  into  two  classes,  accord- 
ing as  they  put  in  the  foreground  the  content  of  the  study  or 
the  effect  on  the  student.  But  these  two  conceptions,  instead 
of  being  opposed  to  each  other,  are  simply  two  aspects  of  one 
mental  activity  ;  they  may  be  reconciled  in  a  single  statement, 
comprehensive  and  brief.  The  starting  point  for  this  is 
a  great  historical  fact,  which  may  be  put  in  the  words  of  one 
of  the  best-known  scientists  of  England  and  America,  Sir 
William  Osier :  "  The  tap-root  of  modern  science  sinks  deep 
in  Greek  soil,  the  astounding  fertility  of  which  is  one  of  the 
outstanding  facts  of  history.  .  .  .  Though  not  always 
recognized,  the  controlling  principles  of  our  art,  literature, 
and  philosophy,  as  well  as  those  of  science,  are  Hellenic." 
Corresponding  to  this  undisputed  fact  of  history,  and  some- 
how closely  related  to  it,  though  we  cannot  here  discuss  the 
relation,  is  the  following  psychological  fact,  verified  in  centuries 
of  experience.  For  minds  not  unadapted  to  it,  the  process 


T/ie  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     407 

of  acquiring,  under  good  instruction,  a  first-hand  acquaintance 
with  the  Hellenic  mind,  as  embodied  in  the  existing  works 
of  ancient  Greeks,  is  peculiarly  formative,  enlarging,  dis- 
ciplinary. No  educational  instrument  yet  known  can  fully 
take  the  place  of  this,  as  none  can  take  the  place  of  mathematics. 
This  brings  us  to  the  simple  and  comprehensive  formula : 
The  prime  object  of  Greek  study  is  to  gain  a  first-hand  ac- 
quaintance with  Hellenism,  as  a  great  force  in  civilization ; 
the  first  aim  in  teaching  Greek  is  to  lead  pupils  to  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  that  force.  The  disciplinary  effect,  the 
formal  training,  and  all  desirable  ends,  are  included  in  that 
central  aim,  as  auxiliary  or  incidental  to  it.  That  Hellenic 
force  has  been  profound,  lasting,  pervasive.  Along  one  line 
it  reached  even  the  extreme  Orient,  long  before  the  Renaissance 
in  Europe.  It  has  recently  been  demonstrated  that  through 
Alexander's  conquests,  carrying  Greek  art  to  northern  India, 
where  Buddhism  arose  and  matured,  even  China  and  Japan 
received  from  Hellas  a  potent  influence  on  their  sculpture 
and  painting.  And  now  this  influence,  carried  eastward  to 
the  edge  of  Asia,  has  there  met  the  broader  stream  that  flowed 
westward  through  Europe  to  America  and  across  the  Pacific. 
Such  far-reaching  facts  in  the  development  of  mankind  must 
continue  to  urge  all  who  would  understand  the  intellectual 
world  of  to-day  and  the  movements  of  history  to  know  Hellas 
for  themselves.  And  really  to  know  Hellas  is  to  take  into 
one's  self  directly  something  of  that  original  force,  still  un- 
exhausted, still  fertilizing  the  individual  mind  that  is  brought 
into  real  contact  with  the  art,  literature,  and  thought  of  ancient 
Greece.  Such  are  the  facts  and  experiences  that  must  draw 
many  of  the  stronger  and  more  aspiring  minds  to  this  study. 

The  Approach  to  the  Hellenic  Spirit.  —  When  we  would 
approach  the  Hellenic  spirit  most  directly,  it  is  embodied, 
first,  in  countless  examples  of  Greek  art  still  existing,  more  or 
less  injured,  in  European  and  Asiatic  Hellas,  and  in  the 
museums  of  Europe  and  America ;  and  secondly  in  a  copious 


408  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

literature.  Where  the  former  are  accessible,  as  in  our  larger 
cities,  no  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  them  should 
be  neglected.  But  for  general  educational  purposes  literature 
has  this  advantage  over  all  other  arts,  that  its  originals  can 
by  printing  be  reproduced  perfectly,  cheaply,  and  in  any 
number  of  examples.  If  we  will,  we  can  know  these  books 
nearly  as  well  as  any  Greek  could.  Only  we  must  first  learn 
the  language,  for  translations  are  but  poor  copies.  In  school 
and  college  the  Greek  language  is  to  be  taught  and  studied 
primarily  as  offering  the  only  direct  access  to  the  great  books. 
For  while  Euclid  and  perhaps  a  few  other  authors  can  be  ade- 
quately read  in  translation,  neither  Homer  and  the  dramatists 
nor  Thucydides  and  the  orators  nor  Plato  and  Aristotle  can 
be  so  read.  For  these  the  content  is  inseparable  from  the 
original  form.  And  unfortunately  Greek  is  a  difficult  language. 
Its  difficulties  may  be  considered  in  four  groups,  which  pre- 
sent themselves  to  students  in  the  following  order.  First, 
an  alphabet  differing  in  part  from  our  own.  This  is  the  least 
difficulty,  but  is  serious  during  the  first  weeks.  Second,  a 
large  vocabulary,  far  less  represented  in  everyday  English 
than  is  the  Latin  or  French.  Third,  a  rich  inflectional  system, 
especially  for  the  verb.  Fourth,  a  wide  divergence  from  Eng- 
lish in  syntactical  idiom,  a  divergence  due  chiefly  to  the  third 
group  of  differences,  the  copious  inflections.  It  is  really  the 
verb  that  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  serious  troubles  after  the 
alphabet  is  learned ;  and  too  often  the  verb  is  neglected,  with 
disastrous  results.  Taken  all  together,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  as  large  a  bulk  of  grammatical  acquisition  is  required 
to  prepare  for  the  best  colleges  in  Xenophon  and  Homer  as 
is  required  for  preparation  in  Latin  and  in  elementary  French 
and  German  combined.  Nothing  is  gained  by  blinking  these 
difficulties.  It  is  better  to  face  them,  and  attack  them  in 
order. 

METHOD  FOR  BEGINNERS.  —  The  first  step  in  learn- 
ing the  alphabet  is  to  copy  out  both  capitals  and  small  letters, 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     409 

the  teacher  indicating  the  best  way  of  writing  each  where 
a  question  can  arise.  Some  would  follow  the  cursive  manuscript 
forms  now  used  in  Greece.  This  has  advantages ;  but  unless 
one  lives  in  a  Greek-speaking  community,  keeping  nearer  to 
the  usual  printed  forms  leads  more  directly  to  the  main  goal. 
Next,  the  names  of  the  letters  should  be  copied  out,  in  Greek 
characters,  the  pupil  pronouncing  each  one  aloud  repeatedly. 
The  written  accents  are  so  troublesome  that  one  is  inclined 
to  relax  the  requirement  of  strict  accuracy  at  first,  hoping 
to  take  them  up  more  carefully  later.  That  is  a  mistake ; 
to  correct  a  habit  of  inaccuracy  once  acquired  takes  more  time 
and  effort  than  does  accuracy  from  the  beginning.  The  funda- 
mental rules  are  few,  and  the  whole  subject  less  difficult  than 
English  accent  is  for  foreigners.  And  careful  pronunciation 
should  accompany  every  step.  This  raises  the  question, 
what  pronunciation  ? 

Pronunciation.  —  As  with  writing,  it  leads  most  directly 
to  our  main  goal,  acquaintance  with  the  ancient  literature,  to 
adopt  the  compromise  in  pronunciation  which  is  recommended 
in  recent  grammars  and  by  the  Classical  Association  of  Eng- 
land and  Wales.  The  principle  of  this  compromise  is  simple  : 
to  pronounce  as  the  Athenians  did  about  400  B.C.,  as  nearly 
as  is  practicable  for  our  classes.  The  latter  consideration 
leads  us  to  adopt  substantially  the  modern  Athenian  sounds 
for  e,  o,  $,  d,  x  and  to  give  &)  a  closer  sound  than  the  ancient, 
like  that  of  German  0;  the  ancient  sounds  in  these  cases 
would,  for  our  classes,  be  so  difficult  as  to  demand  for  mastering 
them  a  disproportionate  amount  of  time.  For  the  same  reason 
it  is  not  thought  worth  while  to  attempt  the  ancient  pitch 
accents  ;  we  pronounce  them  all,  in  the  present  Greek  fashion, 
as  we  do  the  English  stress  accent.  Long  and  short  vowels, 
however,  it  saves  time  in  the  end  to  discriminate  carefully ; 
"  hidden  quantities  "  are  few  in  Greek.  To  Plato  no  doubt 
our  best  reading  would  have  sounded  very  barbarous,  perhaps 
unintelligible.  But  so  would  our  reading  of  Shakespeare's 


410  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

lines  have  sounded  to  Shakespeare ;  yet  that  does  not  make 
them  less  living  to  us.  Some  would  see  in  this  example  an  ar- 
gument for  the  modern  Greek  pronunciation  for  ancient  Greek. 
That,  however,  is  to  overlook  the  decisive  differences  in  the 
two  cases.  The  change  in  English  since  1600  has  not  gone 
so  deep  that  our  pronunciation  destroys  all  Shakespeare's 
rhythm,  confounds  the  commonest  words,  and  turns  a  phonetic 
spelling  into  an  irrational  chaos.  The  modern  Greek  pro- 
nunciation does  all  that  for  Sophocles.  Considering  the 
centuries  that  have  elapsed,  the  Greek  language  has  been 
conservative ;  some  of  the  present  characteristics  began  to 
appear  before  300  B.C.  ;  the  popular  speech  of  Greece  is  eupho- 
nious and  expressive  and  has  an  interesting  literature.  But 
the  wealth  of  the  old  literature  was  a  constant  force  toward 
the  retention  of  old  spelling,  while  pronunciation  inevitably 
changed.  When,  therefore,  the  modern  sounds  of  the  letters 
are  applied  to  the  poetry  of  twenty-three  centuries  or  more 
ago,  rhythm  disappears,  spelling  becomes  chaotic,  and  the 
language  far  harder  to  acquire.  For  an  approximate  illustra- 
tion in  English  we  should  take,  not  Shakespeare,  but  Chaucer. 
To  read  his  lines  as  verse  we  must  return  as  well  as  we  can 
to  his  pronunciation ;  in  good  teaching  of  Chaucer  that  is  now 
done. 

Oral  Methods.  —  But  precision  in  pronunciation  on  the 
system  adopted  is  essential.  This  is  one  item  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  general  principle  that  Greek,  like  any  foreign 
language,  should  be  taught  as  a  living  speech.  As  for  "  dead 
languages,"  of  course  Elizabethan  English  is  really  as  dead 
as  the  language  of  Xenophon  ;  the  latter  can  be  made  to  live 
for  us  in  the  same  way  as  the  former,  and  not  otherwise.  That 
is,  ear,  hand,  and  tongue  must  from  the  first  be  as  accustomed 
to  Greek  words  as  is  the  eye,  precisely  as  in  the  best  teaching 
of  modern  languages.  The  advance  of  recent  years  in  teach- 
ing these,  especially  in  France,  Germany,  and  England,  is  even 
more  needed  in  teaching  Greek,  and  is  just  as  possible. 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     411 

"  Read,  write,  speak  "  was  the  rule  of  the  Jesuit  schools  three 
centuries  ago ;  the  notion  that  Greek  and  Latin  are  to  be 
learned  merely  by  reading,  without  accompanying  oral  use, 
belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century,  and  is  a  fundamental 
error.  How  much  use  can  be  made  of  conversation  will  depend 
on  the  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  teacher ;  more  use  can  be 
made  than  seems  possible  to  one  who  has  not  persistently  tried 
for  it.  But  the  principle  is  not  bound  up  in  any  "  method  "  ; 
what  it  requires  is  that  by  every  available  means  the  ear  be 
trained  to  understand  Greek  words  when  spoken,  and  that 
the  student  be  accustomed  to  reproduce  Greek  accurately, 
both  orally  and  in  writing.  The  better  the  teacher's  own  com- 
mand of  the  language,  the  more  he  can  vary  these  means, 
and  the  better  results  he  will  obtain.  Also  the  more  Greek 
can  be  used  for  saying  what  must  be  said  in  the  classroom, 
the  more  rapid  the  progress.  But  any  teacher  can  insist  on 
good  reading  aloud,  writing  from  dictation,  translation  from 
another's  reading,  and  on  reciting  and  writing  from  memory 
both  paradigms  and  connected  passages.  By  such  exercises, 
too,  one  gains  the  power  to  go  further  in  that  direction.  There 
seems  to  be  a  physiological  reason  for  the  plain  fact  of  ex- 
perience, that  a  foreign  tongue  ceases  to  be  alien  and  becomes 
a  natural  and  living  mode  of  expressing  thought,  only  when, 
like  the  mother  tongue,  it  is  firmly  held  by  all  four  kinds  of 
language  memory,  those  of  the  ear,  hand,  and  voice,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  eye.  To  exercise  all  alike  from  the  beginning 
makes  the  learner's  progress  more  rapid,  because  each  step  is 
more  secure. 

Reading.  —  For  mastering  regular  Attic  inflections,  and 
of  course  for  obtaining  any  considerable  vocabulary  or  a  fair 
knowledge  of  ordinary  syntax,  two  things  are  indispensable. 
These  are  a  large  amount  of  reading  in  easy  Attic  prose,  and 
along  with  this,  not  after  it  as  a  special  exercise,  much  re- 
productive use  of  the  language.  To  both  too  little  attention 
is  given  in  American  schools.  Those  who  condemn  Greek  com- 


412  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

position  from  the  notion  that  this  is  taught  as  an  end  in  itself 
are  attacking  a  man  of  straw ;  nowhere  has  it  ever  been  so 
taught.  But  for  learning  to  read  any  language  accurately  no 
other  means  can  take  the  place  of  writing.  And  if  to  prepare 
pupils  rightly  for  the  examination  in  elementary  French  or 
German  some  two  hundred  pages  of  reading  are  requisite,  how 
much  Attic  Greek  must  be  read  to  obtain  equal  proficiency  in 
the  far  more  difficult  language  ?  Can  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pages  of  Xenophon  suffice?  Probably  five  hundred  would 
be  nearer  the  mark.  The  disproportion  and  the  error  of 
method  in  the  usual  practice  are  plain.  Rereading  and  learn- 
ing by  heart,  good  as  they  are,  do  not  meet  the  need.  Too 
much  rereading  dulls  the  interest,  and  that  is  a  capital  mistake. 
What  an  eager  young  mind  craves  is  variety,  new  combinations, 
the  repetition  that  comes  with  these  is  more  effective  than 
twice  that  repetition  through  reviewing.  For  the  vast  ap- 
paratus of  Attic  conjugations,  for  the  two  or  three  thousand 
fundamental  words,  and  for  the  common  syntax,  no  single 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pages  can  offer  enough  combinations. 
Still  more  is  this  true  of  what  we  group  together  as  idioms,  the 
un-English  ways  of  saying  things,  ways  that  grow  naturally 
from  the  wealth  of  inflections,  but  are  impossible  in  a  language 
so  little  inflected  as  English.  Just  because  they  are  unnatural 
to  us,  but  are  the  warp  and  woof  of  Greek  expression,  the  pupil 
must  become  familiar  with  a  mass  of  them  by  meeting  them 
in  scores  of  variations ;  to  repeat  a  few  of  the  combinations 
a  score  of  times  is  not  enough.  How  to  meet  this  difficulty 
is  a  serious  problem,  which  we  have  scarcely  faced,  much  less 
solved.  The  solution  is  to  be  sought  in  two  places.  First, 
a  large  amount  of  simple  Attic  prose,  as  varied  as  possible, 
should  be  read  before  the  Anabasis.  Disconnected  sentences 
will  not  serve,  for  several  reasons ;  first,  because  they  are 
intolerably  dull.  And  nothing  read  before  the  Anabasis 
should  destroy  the  freshness  of  that  interesting  story  by 
anticipating  its  distinctive  vocabulary  or  its  narrative ;  de- 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     413 

tached  sentences  that  spoil  both  by  anticipation  are  a  pedagog- 
ical sin.  In  part  the  place  must  be  filled  by  modern  composi- 
tions. A  Greek  Boy  at  Home,  by  Dr.  W.  H.  D.  Rouse 
(London,  1909),  whose  experimental  work  in  the  Perse  School 
at  Cambridge  (England)  has  for  a  decade  been  doing  much  for 
classical  teaching,  can  DC  commended  from  personal  experience 
as  interesting  and  practical,  and  it  can  be  taken  up  in  the  first 
week.  It  has  the  merit,  too,  of  introducing  early  the  com- 
monest particles  and  idioms  of  sentence  connection,  which 
play  so  much  larger  a  part  than  in  Latin  or  any  modern- 
language.  Later  some  parts  of  Lucian  can  be  used  ;  when  the 
need  is  more  widely  realized,  a  wider  choice  of  suitable  texts 
will  soon  be  provided  in  convenient  editions.  Secondly,  we 
must  not  be  afraid  to  postpone  a  little  the  reading  of  Homer, 
that  the  immortal  epics  may  be  the  better  enjoyed.  Colleges 
that  have  classes  for  beginners  in  Greek  are  as  directly  con- 
cerned as  the  schools  in  attacking  such  questions  as  these, 
though  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  details  of  the  solution 
may  be  much  affected  by  the  age  of  the  class  and  by  their 
previous  studies.  We  must  here  confine  ourselves  to  general 
principles,  observing  that  youths  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  can 
learn  paradigms,  and  perhaps  can  learn  passages  by  heart, 
more  easily  than  those  of  eighteen  or  older,  while  the  arguments 
of  the  orators  and  the  thoughts  of  Plato's  Apology,  Eut/iyphro, 
or  Crito  are  harder  for  young  people  to  comprehend. 

Minor  Principles  of  Method.  —  Three  topics,  under  the 
general  subject  of  method,  still  demand  a  few  words.  First, 
six  hours  a  week  in  the  class  are  far  more  than  twice  as  effective 
as  three  hours  ;  less  than  five  hours  a  week  means  a  sad  loss  of 
efficiency  in  the  first  year  of  any  foreign  language.  The 
secret  of  the  rapid  strides  \vhich  children  make  in  learning 
German  when  living  in  Germany  is  not  in  the  increased  number 
of  hours  given  to  study,  but  in  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
hours  of  exposure  to  German,  with  the  constant  gentle  urging, 
which  daily  life  brings  upon  them,  to  listen  and  talk  as  well  as 


414  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

write  and  read.  The  classroom  is  a  poor  substitute  for  all 
that,  but  is  the  best  we  have ;  we  should  make  as  much  of  it 
as  we  can.  Second,  in  the  writer's  experience,  Greek  syntax 
makes  little  trouble  for  pupils  who  have  really  learned  the 
inflections.  It  is  hazy  notions  about  these  that  make  syntax 
and  syntactical  idioms  appear  hard.  The  thing  to  emphasize 
constantly  during  the  first  five  hundred  pages  of  reading  in 
Attic  prose  is  the  inflections,  particularly  of  verbs ;  without 
a  firm  grip  on  these  a  student  can  have  no  real  knowledge  of 
Greek,  but  only  invertebrate  and  feeble  notions,  which  were 
better  replaced  by  a  real  knowledge  of  French.  And  a  teacher 
must  not  expect  this  mass  of  forms  to  be  fully  digested  until 
several  hundred  pages  have  been  read,  with  much  reading 
aloud  and  writing  and  much  reviewing  of  set  paradigms. 
Third,  what  is  commonly  known  as  "  sight  reading,"  if 
treated  as  a  separate  exercise  and  as  somehow  distinct  from 
right  reading,  is  a  snare  and  a  delusion.  Reading  is  merely 
taking  the  writer's  meaning  from  his  words,  written  or  printed. 
Reading  Greek  or  French  is  not  different  in  that  respect  from 
reading  English.  The  pages  a  pupil  is  set  to  read  should 
be  properly  graded  to  his  previous  attainment.  That  being 
assumed,  every  sentence  should  be  first  read  as  well  as  possible 
at  sight.  That  is,  the  pupil  should  be  trained  always  to  take 
the  sentence  as  it  comes,  gathering  the  meaning  as  he  proceeds, 
from  all  the  indications  before  him.  Precisely  as,  in  learning 
the  mother  tongue,  children  enlarge  their  knowledge  mostly 
by  inferring  from  the  context  and  the  situation,  so  a  great 
deal  that  is  new  can  be  inferred  on  every  page.  For  some 
months  all  this  new  reading  should  be  done  in  class,  the  teacher 
giving  the  meaning  of  new  words  when  this  cannot  be  in- 
ferred, but  guiding  the  class  to  make  all  needed  inferences  that 
can  be  made  on  the  basis  of  what  they  already  know.  This 
practice  both  increases  speed  and  habituates  to  the  right 
method,  while  it  still  leaves  plenty  for  the  pupil  to  do  in  review- 
ing the  same  passage  for  the  next  session.  But  any  kind  of 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     415 

reading  which  cultivates  a  habit  of  stopping  short  of  a  close 
approximation  to  the  writer's  exact  meaning  is  vicious.  The 
purpose  of  those  who  first  gave  vogue  to  "  sight  reading  " 
was  to  increase  the  pitifully  small  amount  of  reading  then 
usually  done  ;  the  purpose  at  least  was  good. 

The  above  outline  deals  only  with  the  teaching  of  the  lan- 
guage in  the  early  stages.  This  is  not  the  place  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  method  in  the  more  advanced  work  of  the  college, 
after  a  fair  reading  command  of  the  language  is  acquired. 

PLACE  IN  SCHOOLS.  —  The  schools  of  different  countries 
have  developed  on  such  different  lines  that  comparisons  in 
regard  to  any  branch  of  study  are  difficult  to  make  and  are 
peculiarly  open  to  misunderstanding.  The  intense  interest  in 
Greek  during  the  earlier  Renaissance  soon  declined.  It  was 
in  Protestant  Germany  and  England  that  Greek  literature 
was  most  highly  esteemed,  permeated  most  thoroughly  the 
highest  intellectual  life,  most  strongly  influenced  the  men  who 
created  the  modern  classics,  and  there  it  has  held  the  largest 
place  in  the  school  training  of  the  educated  class. 

For  German  schools  a  new  era  began  with  the  reorganization 
of  the  Prussian  educational  system  after  the  humiliation  of 
Prussia  by  Napoleon.  The  school  which  led  to  the  university 
and  was  intended  for  the  early  training  of  all  members  of 
the  learned  professions  and  all  higher  state  officials,  though 
it  was  open  to  all  boys  whose  parents  could  send  them, 
was  the  gymnasium.  This  was  meant  to  be  the  stronghold 
and  propagator  of  the  New  Humanism,  the  heart  of  which 
was  the  appreciation  of  Hellenism,  as  exemplified  in  all  the 
makers  of  classical  German  literature,  notably  in  Lessing, 
Goethe,  and  Schiller.  Latin  was  given  the  largest  place  in  the 
new  gymnasium,  but  Greek  stood  beside  Latin  for  the  last 
six  years  of  the  course.  And  without  passing  through  this 
course  there  was  no  entrance  to  the  university,  therefore  none 
to  a  profession  or  to  high  civic  office.  The  Prussian  schools, 
controlled  by  the  state,  were  on  the  whole  so  superior  that  they 


416  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

became  the  general  model  for  all  other  German  states.  Further, 
the  privileges  granted  only  to  state  schools  made  it  impossible 
for  good  private  schools  for  boys  to  grow  up  beside  the  state 
schools.  The  system  as  a  whole  amounted  to  a  degree  of 
propulsion  toward  the  study  of  Greek  such  as  England  and 
America  never  approached;  that  of  France  was  similar,  but 
less  rigid.  Two  large  results  followed.  First,  Greek  was 
taught  and  learned  with  a  thoroughness  nowhere  else  equaled 
by  so  large  a  fraction  of  the  youth  of  a  country.  Second,  as 
mathematics,  natural  science,  the  native  and  other  modern 
languages  and  literatures  became  more  and  more  important 
for  a  liberal  education,  and  yet  could  not  be  adequately  rec- 
ognized in  schools  that  gave  so  much  time  to  classics,  the 
revolt  against  this  educational  monopoly  was  most  justified 
and  was  strongest  in  Germany.  The  centralized  state  control 
made  it  harder  than  in  America  for  public  opinion  to  effect 
changes ;  but  changes  had  to  come.  Under  the  present 
Emperor  they  have  been  coming  rapidly,  and  are  likely  to 
go  much  farther ;  and  Greek  is  the  subject  most  affected  by 
them.  In  two  ways  Greek  is  crowded  out.  First,  students 
are  now  admitted  to  university  privileges  from  other  schools, 
without  Greek ;  second,  more  room  for  modern  subjects  must 
be  found  in  the  gymnasium  by  restricting  the  time  allotted 
to  Latin  and  Greek.  As  one  manifestation  of  the  latter 
tendency,  the  plan  of  the  so-called  Frankfort  system  seems 
to  promise  most  for  the  retention  of  Greek.  By  this  plan 
Latin  is  not  begun  till  the  fourth  year  of  the  nine-year  course, 
being  preceded  by  three  years  of  French.  Greek  is  not  begun 
till  two  years  later,  and  is  then  studied  intensively  for  four 
years.  If  this  shortening  of  the  time  leads  to  the  adoption 
of  improved  methods  of  teaching,  along  the  line  of  the  vastly 
improved  teaching  of  modern  languages  that  is  now  enforced 
in  all  Prussian  secondary  schools  as  in  all  French  lycees, 
probably  more  Greek  can  be  taught  than  was  possible  under 
the  old  plan. 


Tlic  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     417 

In  England,  the  establishing  of  classical  schools  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  was  a  widespread  movement, 
as  truly  popular  as  any  such  activity  could  be  in  those  times. 
It  was  always  recognized  that  many  who  desired  higher  edu- 
cation, and  who  would  by  it  be  fitted  to  render  public  service 
in  church  and  state,  were  sons  of  poor  parents.  Hence  every 
educational  foundation  provided  in  some  form  for  gratuitous, 
or  partially  gratuitous,  teaching  of  a  certain  number  of  poor 
boys.  In  all  such  schools  Greek  was  a  firmly  established 
subject  of  study  by  1660,  and  has  continued  to  be  so.  In  the 
latter  half  of  the  last  century  a  "  modern  side,"  without  Greek, 
also  became  usual,  and  a  demand  for  exemption  from  Greek 
for  university  entrance  made  itself  felt.  The  newer  univer- 
sities do  not  require  it,  and  the  question  is  under  discussion 
at  both  the  older  institutions.  At  Cambridge  German  or 
French  is  allowed  as  a  substitute  for  Greek  in  the  regulations 
for  the  "  Examination  in  Modern  Languages  for  the  Ordinary 
Degree,"  an  innovation  which  probably  foreshadows  a  like 
concession  with  regard  to  the  requirements  for  the  "  Previous 
Examination."  At  Oxford,  however,  the-  proposal  to  make 
Greek  non-compulsory  in  the  cases  of  candidates  presenting 
themselves  for  honors  in  mathematics  and  natural  science  was 
rejected  in  Congregation  (November,  191 1)  by  a  majority  of 
236.  As  regards  the  preparatory  schools  the  Report  of  the 
Curriculum  Committee  (1910)  suggesting  that  Greek  should 
not  be  commenced  "  until  a  boy  had  reached  a  certain  stand- 
ard in  other  subjects,  such  as  English,  Latin,  and  French," 
was  laid  before  the  Headmasters'  Conference  at  Sherborne, 
and  is  still  awaiting  their  formal  consideration.  But  nowhere 
else  is  Greek  more  firmly  intrenched  in  the  estimation  of  the 
educated  classes  than  in  England  and  Scotland ;  this  must 
have  for  a  time  a  conservative  effect  in  the  schools.  The 
amount  of  time  traditionally  given  to  the  subject,  however, 
must  certainly  be  diminished,  and  also  the  number  of  those 
who  drop  out  by  reason  of  failure  to  attain,  before  the  age 


418  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

limit,  the  standard  set  for  the  successive  forms.  It  should 
be  added,  on  the  other  hand,  that  youths  to  whom  the  subject 
is  adapted,  and  who  take  the  full  training  of  a  fine  English 
school,  including  verse-composition,  and  then  honors  in  classics 
at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  obtain  a  fuller  mastery  of  the  Greek 
language  and  a  deeper  understanding  of  Hellenism  than  is 
imparted  by  the  corresponding  course  of  any  other  country. 

In  America,  the  English  colonists,  following  the  example 
of  the  mother  country,  began  early  to  found  grammar  schools, 
in  which  Latin  should  be  taught,  and  a  beginning  of  Greek 
in  the  New  Testament.  Before  the  Revolution  also  the  endow- 
ment of  "  academies  "  as  another  class  of  secondary  schools 
had  been  well  begun  and  it  continued  into  the  last  century,  to 
be  succeeded  by  the  still  more  popular  movement  for  estab- 
lishing free  public  high  schools.  One  of  the  chief  functions 
of  the  academy,  as  of  the  grammar  school,  was  to  fit  boys  for 
college,  and  hence  to  start  them  in  Latin  and  in  the  elements 
of  Greek ;  the  high  schools  were  intended  rather  to  furnish 
a  better  education  for  those  who  would  not  go  to  college. 
Preparation  for  colleges  of  the  old  type  was  for  them  always 
a  secondary  aim ;  and  has  been  more  and  more  subordinated 
as  the  other  aim  has  broadened  and  turned  more  toward 
vocational  training,  or  at  least  toward  such  teaching  as  would 
more  directly  facilitate  bread  winning.  In  the  newer  states, 
of  course,  where  the  state  universities  have  always  given  more 
attention  to  applied  science  and  purely  modern  subjects,  the 
high  schools  of  each  state  have  stood  in  close  connection  with 
its  university ;  but  that  brings  them  no  nearer  to  Greek. 
The  great  increase  in  the  number  of  pupils  whose  home  speech 
is  not  English  has  been  a  large  factor  in  this  development  of 
the  high  schools.  Accordingly,  while  many  of  the  earlier 
high  schools  included  Greek  in  the  curriculum,  few,  except 
large  high  schools,  now  do  so,  and  many  of  the  largest,  as  in 
New  York  and  Chicago,  do  not.  In  many  states,  as  Iowa 
and  Minnesota,  no  high  schools  teach  any  Greek.  The 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     419 

surviving  grammar  schools  and  larger  academies  generally 
teach  it  to  those  who  desire  it.  Meantime,  with  the  increase  in 
wealth  and  advance  in  ideals  of  education,  the  demand  for 
proprietary  and  endowed  schools  of  the  highest  class  has 
lately  been  growing.  This  has  filled  to  overflowing  the  exist- 
ing schools  of  this  sort,  and  has  brought  into  being  many  new 
ones.  These  are  largely,  if  not  primarily,  preparatory  for 
college  and  technical  schools,  and  hence  include  Greek  for 
those  who  wish  it.  They  may  prove  to  be  one  of  the  strong- 
holds of  Greek  instruction,  since  they  are  in  a  better  position 
for  adopting  improved  methods  of  teaching  than  are  the 
public  schools,  and  their  teachers'  advice  carries  more  weight 
with  parents  and  pupils.  Finally,  it  should  be  mentioned  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  maintains  not  a  few  colleges  and 
schools,  including  some  for  girls,  in  which  Greek  is  taught. 
Also,  some  groups  of  immigrants  from  Germany  have  been 
active  in  providing  classical  teaching  for  their  sons.  Notably 
the  Lutherans  have  a  series  of  flourishing  schools  more  closely 
modeled  on  the  German  gymnasium  than  any  others  in 
America. 

Amid  the  conflicting  currents  of  life  in  America  it  is  difficult 
to  sum  up  the  present  situation  with  reference  to  Greek 
study,  and  impossible  to  foretell  the  future.  The  mate- 
rialistic trend  of  the  whole  modern  world  toward  money-get- 
ting is  hostile  to  studies  that  seem  to  have  no  direct  bearing 
on  that.  On  the  other  hand,  the  deep  idealistic  strain  and 
the  passion  for  the  best  that  are  so  characteristic  of  the  race 
that  America  is  slowly  forming  out  of  many  heterogeneous 
elements,  offer  ground  for  hope.  Whatever  the  teachers  of 
Greek  can  lead  their  pupils  to  feel,  in  adult  life,  has  been 
good  in  their  own  mental  experience,  will  be  kept  and  made 
available  for  their  children. 


420  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

VISUAL   AIDS 

LATIN  AND  GREEK.  —  The  various  schoolbooks,  in- 
cluding beginners'  books  and  editions,  are  now,  as  a  rule, 
profusely  illustrated  with  maps,  diagrams,  pictures  of  ancient 
sculpture  and  coinage  and,  in  the  case  of  Caesar,  with  photo- 
graphs of  the  present  appearance  of  the  ancient  battle  fields. 

Besides  the  textbooks,  however,  there  are  many  other 
publications  for  the  use  of  students  and  for  classroom  illus- 
tration. Of  prime  importance  are  large  maps,  the  best  of 
which  are  those  of  Kiepert  (Reimer,  Berlin).  There  are 
numerous  school  atlases  in  all  countries. 

A  capital  book  is  Hill's  Illustrations  of  School  Classics 
(London,  1903),  which  gives  numerous  illustrations  covering 
the  fields  of  religion  and  mythology,  history,  and  antiqui- 
ties, with  a  special  chapter  on  buildings.  This  may  be  well 
supplemented  by  Schreiber's  Atlas  of  Classical  Antiquities 
(Macmillan,  1895). 

Lantern  slides  have  been  prepared  in  great  numbers  by 
G.  R.  Swain,  Lockport,  Illinois,  to  illustrate  Caesar's  life  and 
campaigns  (400  slides)  and  Greek  and  Roman  archaeology  in 
general.  The  Records  of  the  Past  Exploration  Society 
(Washington,  D.C.)  have  issued  forty  slides  illustrating  Vergil's 
jEneid  as  well  as  sets  illustrating  Pompeii  (50  slides),  Homer 
(65  slides),  and  Greek  and  Roman  mythology  (50  slides). 
These  are  expensive,  but  very  fine.  Excellent  and  cheap  half- 
tone prints  of  classical  architecture  and  sculpture  are  issued 
by  the  Bureau  of  University  Travel,  Boston,  Massachusetts ; 
the  Perry  Pictures  Co.,  Maiden,  Massachusetts  ;  A.  W.  Cooley, 
Auburndale,  Massachusetts.  Washington  University,  St. 
Louis,  will  furnish  slides  based  on  the  remains  and  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Saalburg  Camp. 

For  the  Gallic  War  we  have  also  Oehlcr's  Bilder- Atlas  zu 
Ccesars  Biiclier  dc  bcllo  Galileo  (Leipzig,  1890),  and  Von 
Kampen's  Quindecim  ad  Casaris  de  bcllo  Galileo  commenlarios 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     421 

tabula;  (Gotha).  L.  Gurlitt,  has  also  published  six  An- 
schauungstafeln  zu  Caesars  bcllum  Gallicum  (Gotha). 

W.  B.  Harison  of  New  York  has  issued  a  very  extensive  and 
cheap  collection  of  Illustrations  for  History  Notebooks,  in 
which  there  are  outline  maps  as  well  as  illustrations  of  every 
conceivable  ancient  object.  These  can  be  made  very  service- 
able. 

Visual  aids  have  a  prominent  place  in  the  direct  method. 
For  this  purpose  Dent  and  Co.  (London)  have  issued  a  number 
oj:  colored  Wall  Pictures  of  Roman  Antiquities.  These  may 
be  supplemented  by  Launitz's  Wandtafeln  zur  Veranschau- 
lichung  antikcn  Lcbcns  (Cassel).  Cybulski's  colored  Tabula 
quibus  antiquitatcs  Grcecce  et  Romance  illuslrantur  (Leipzig, 
Koehler)  are  also  invaluable  for  such  use.  Bell  and  Co. 
(London)  have  recently  issued  a  series  of  sixteen  colored  picture 
cards,  with  vocabularies  and  exercises  covering  a  similar  ground. 
The  pictures  in  Gurlitt's  Lateinische  Fibel  and  Lcscbuch  (Berlin) 
could  easily  be  reproduced,  and  would  give  much  variety  to 
the  material. 

Especial  reference  should  be  made  to  Hensell's  Modclle  zur 
Veranschaulichung  antiken  Lcbens  (Diesterweg,  Frankfurt 
a.M.).  These  models  have  to  do  with  ancient  clothing  and 
life  and  with  military  engines.  They  could  easily  be  re- 
produced by  the  manual  training  department  of  any  school. 
They  are  not  expensive  wrhen  the  size  and  demand  for  such 
models  is  considered. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  in  recent  years  has  been  the  tendency  in  the  American  high 
school  in  the  number  studying  Latin  ?     Greek  ? 

2.  Compare  the  amount  of  time  devoted  to  Latin  in  the  American 
high  school  with  that  given  in  the  various  types  of  secondary  schools 
of  European  countries? 

3.  What  difference  in  the  results  of  the  study  of  Latin  are  discoverable 
in  a  comparison  of  American  high  schools  with  European  secondary 
schools  ?     In  methods  ?     In  textbooks  ?     In  curricula  ? 


422  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

4.  Test  the  assigned  values  of  the  study  of  Latin  in  a  study  of  any 
one  given  high  school,  with  students  now  in  school.     With  graduate  stu- 
dents.    Compare  Greek. 

5.  Compare  these  results  with  the  results  of  similar  tests  for  other 
subjects. 

6.  Compare  in  any  one  high  school  or  other  institution  the  general 
class  or  school  standing  of  students  taking  Latin  or  Greek  with  those 
who  do  not.     In  what  respects  does  such  a  study  give  evidence  of  the 
educational  value  of  the  subject,  and  in  what  respects  not? 

7.  In  what  respects  are  the  problem  of  interest  and  the  problem  of 
effort  in  education  revealed  through  the  study  of  Latin  ?     Of  Greek  ? 

8.  To  what  extent  is  the  oral  method  of  teaching  applicable  in  Latin  ? 
What  peculiar  values  does  it  have  ? 

9.  \Vhat  visual  aids  to  the  teaching  of  Latin  and  Greek  can  be  used 
and  to  what  extent  should  they  be  used  ?     What  are  the  pedagogical  and 
the  educational  value  of  such  aids  ? 

10.    Can  the  values  of  the  study  of  Latin  or  of  Greek  be  measured  by 
quantitative  methods  ? 

REFERENCES 

BENNETT,   C.   E.,  and  BRISTOL,   G.   P.      The   Teaching  of  Latin  and 

Greek  in  the  Secondary  School.     New  ed.     London  and  New  York, 

IQII. 
BREUL,  KARL.     Greek  and  its  Humanistic  Alternatives  in  the  "Little-Go." 

Cambridge,  1905. 

COOKSOX,  C.     Essays  on  Secondary  Education.     Oxford,  1898. 
CORCORAN,  T.    Studies  in  the  History  of  Classical  Teaching.     Dublin,  1911. 
ECKSTEIN,   FR.   A.     Lateinischer   und   Gricchischcr    Untcrricht.     D.  H. 

Heyden,  Ed.     Leipzig,  1887. 
England.     Board  of  Education.     Publications,  particularly  : 

The  Teaching  of  Latin  in  the  Perse  School,  Cambridge.     Educational 

Pamphlet  No.  20.     London,  1910. 
The  Teaching  of  Greek  at  the  Perse  School,  -Cambridge.     Educational 

Pamphlet  No.  28.     London,  1914. 
The  Teaching  of  the  Classics  in  Secondary  Schools  in  Germany.     Special 

Reports,  Vol.  20.     London,  1910. 
GARNE,   J.    B.     Handbook  for  High   School   Teachers   of  Latin.     Cape 

Girardeau,  1909. 
HEADLAM,  J.  W.     Teaching  of  Classics  in  Secondary  Schools  in  Germany. 

In  England,  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports,  Vol.  XX.     Lon- 
don, 1910. 


The  Classical  Languages  and  Literatures     423 

HECKER,  E.  A.     The  Teaching  of  Latin  in  Secondary  Schools.     Boston, 

1909. 

JONES,  W.  H.  S.  The  Teaching  of  Latin.     London,  1906. 
KELSEY,  ¥.  VV.     Latin  and  Greek  in  American  Education.     New  York, 

1911. 

KOHL,  O.     Griechischer  Untcrricht.     Langensalza,  1898. 
MATTHIAS,  A.     Praktische  Pddagogik  filr  hohcrc  Lchranstallen.     Munich, 

1908. 
MICHAELIS,   G.     Wclche  Forderung  kann  dcr  latcinische   Unterricht  an 

Rcformschulen  durch  das  Franzosische  crfahrcn?     Marburg,  1902. 
NORWOOD,  C.,  and  HOPE,  A.  H.     Higher  Education  of  Boys  in  England. 

London,  1909. 
Recommendations  of  the  Classical  Association  on  the  Teaching  of  Latin  and 

Greek —  being  a  series  of  Reports  by  committees.     London,  1912. 
ROUSE,  W.  H.  D.     Classical  Work  and  Method  in  the  Twentieth  Century. 

London,  1908. 
Teaching  of  Latin  and  Greek.     Proc.  Scotch  Classical  Assoc.,  1910- 

1911. 
The  Teaching  of  Classics  (brief  description  of  his  application  of  the 

direct  method  to  Greek  and  Latin).     In  Athemeum,  Sept.  17,  1910, 

PP-  323-325- 

SABIN,  F.  E.     The  Relation  of  Latin  to  Practical  Life.     Chicago,  1913. 

SANDYS,  J.  E.  A  History  of  Classical  Scholarship  from  the  Sixth  Century 
B.C.  to  the  Eighteenth  Century  in  Germany,  and  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  Cambridge,  1903-1908. 

The  School  for  the  Reform  of  Latin  Teaching.  Reports  for  1911,  1912, 
1913,  1914.  London. 

SLAUGHTER,  M.  S.     The  High  School  Course  in  Latin.     Madison,  1908. 

WATSON,  FOSTER.     English  Grammar  Schools  to  1660.     Cambridge,  1908. 

WOODWARD,  WM.  H.  Studies  in  Education  during  the  Age  of  the  Ren- 
aissance, 1400-1600.  Cambridge,  1906. 

The  Years  Work  in  Classical  Studies,   edited  annually  by  W.   H.   D. 
Rouse  for  the  Classical  Association  (London,  John  Murray),  con- 
tains each  year  a  report  on  recent  pedagogical  discussions. 
See  the  files  of  the  Journal  of  Education  (London)  and  School  World 

(London),  especially  since  IQIO,  on  the  status  of  Greek  at  Oxford. 

The  Classical  Weekly,  published  at  Columbia  University,  New  York, 

and  the  Classical  Journal,  published  monthly  at  the  University  of  Chicago, 

contain  much  material  relating    to  the  classics  in  American  schools. 

So  also  do  the  files  of  the  School  Review,  University  of  Chicago,  and  the 

Educational  Review,  edited  by  President  Butler  of  Columbia  University. 


CHAPTER  XI 
MODERN  LANGUAGES 

PURPOSE  OF  STUDY  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGE.  - 

Modern  languages  are  studied  in  the  secondary  school  primarily 
for  their  practical  value.  Through  the  choice  and  study  of 
material  a  cultural  value  is  added.  Moreover,  the  processes 
involved  in  learning  a  foreign  language  are  conceded  to  have 
general  educative  value ;  they  serve  to  clarify,  deepen,  and 
broaden  one's  knowledge  of  language  in  general  as  a  vehicle 
of  thought.  The  practical  goal  sought  in  the  course  may  be 
regarded  from  at  least  two  points  of  view.  We  may  stress 
the  utilitarian  side,  the  practical  oral  control  of  the  language, 
allowing  the  reading  of  books  to  appear  as  a  natural  out- 
growth, or  we  may  make  reading  the  chief  aim.  The  first 
way  might  seem  upon  the  surface  both  a  desirable  and  a 
logical  one  to  pursue.  Yet  experience  teaches  us  that  the 
school  is  not  a  favorable  place  for  the  acquisition  of  a  lan- 
guage technique  commensurate  with  the  energy  that  would 
have  to  be  expended  and  for  which  there  is  not  sufficient  time. 
The  field  of  reading,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  only  broad  and 
cultural,  but  the  kind  of  work  required  to  teach  pupils  to 
read  successfully  is  quite  in  keeping  with  school  conditions. 
Moreover,  the  ability  to  read  a  language  is  more  likely  to  be 
of  permanent  practical  value  than  any  conversational  knowl- 
edge that  might  conceivably  be  gained  in  school  classes. 

METHOD.  — Pronunciation.  —  The  importance  of  teaching 
the  foreign  sounds  correctly  in  the  early  weeks  of  the  modern 
language  course  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized.  The  work 
should  be  largely  upon  an  imitative  and  oral  basis,  the  teacher 
acting  as  model.  It  is  also  important  that  he  possess  a  working 

424 


Modern  Languages  425 

knowledge  of  phonetics.  This  will  insure  the  right  attitude 
toward  this  element  of  the  course,  and  enable  him  to  diagnose 
and  correct  mistakes  wherever  imitation  is  insufficient  as 
a  guide.  Whether  the  pupils  themselves  shall  be  taught 
phonetic  terminology  and  the  foreign  sounds  at  first  by  means 
of  transcribed  texts  is  a  moot  question.  There  are  good  argu- 
ments both  for  and  against,  particularly  when  dealing  with 
a  language  like  French.  In  any  case,  it  is  fundamental 
that  there  should  be  abundant  practice  in  hearing  and  utter- 
ing the  sounds  of  the  new  language. 

Oral  Practice.  —  Although  intelligent  reading  is  the  chief 
end  sought,  a  great  deal  of  attention  ought  to  be  given  to  work 
in  hearing  and  speaking,  because  of  their  very  positive  value 
in  classroom  procedure.  In  general,  emphasis  upon  the  spoken 
word  makes  for  greater  flexibility  in  the  treatment  of  the  ma- 
terial. It  is  stimulating  to  both  teacher  and  pupil.  Imitation 
and  repetition  are  fundamental  means  of  acquiring  a  new 
language,  and  if  oral  exercises  in  the  foreign  tongue  are  em- 
ployed with  judgment,  there  is  no  kind  of  work  which  allows 
and  suggests  to  the  teacher  greater  abundance  of  repetition, 
and  hence  tends  to  make  right  associations  habitual.  More- 
over, the  constant  use  of  the  foreign  language  in  the  classroom, 
in  the  form  of  commands  and  well-directed  questions  and 
answers,  favors  the  formation  of  a  Sprachgefuhl,  or  language 
sense,  an  indefinable  though  undoubtedly  a  potent  factor 
in  the  acquisition  of  a  foreign  language.  The  amount  of  time 
to  be  devoted  to  work  in  speaking  cannot  readily  be  determined. 
In  general,  however,  practice  seems  to  favor  greater  emphasis 
proportionally  during  the  elementary  stage,  at  a  time  when  a 
great  deal  of  drill  is  necessary  to  acquire  the  grammatical 
forms  and  a  working  vocabulary.  But  throughout  the  course 
it  should  be  the  rule  to  have  regular  oral  practice  carefully 
graded  and  coordinated  with  all  other  elements  of  the  course. 
Only  in  this  way  can  we  be  assured  that  it  shall  be  beneficial 
in  the  work.  The  scope  of  work  in  speaking  and  its  distribu- 


426  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

tion  in  the  different  years  of  the  course,  its  relation  to  other 
elements  such  as  reading  and  grammar,  have  not  as  yet  been 
satisfactorily  worked  out,  particularly  for  the  later  stages. 
Adequate  books  and  specially  trained  teachers  are  still  lacking. 

The  earliest  material  will  probably  be  best  selected  from 
objects  in  the  immediate  environment ;  and  wall  pictures,  if 
judiciously  employed,  will  be  of  great  assistance  in  planning 
the  elementary  work.  The  bulk  of  the  material  for  the  second- 
ary school,  however,  should  be  chosen  from  connected  reading- 
texts.  In  the  elementary  stages  these  will  consist  of  simple, 
constructed  texts  or  natural  texts  that  are  rich  in  certain 
grammatical  forms  or  vocabulary.  Later  the  regular  annotated 
stories,  etc.,  may  be  made  the  basis  for  conversational  practice. 
Still,  for  many  reasons,  chief  among  which  are  that  the  reading 
texts  may  not  lend  themselves  to  conversational  treatment, 
that  the  vocabulary  may  be  too  uncommon  or  too  highly 
literary  in  character,  and  above  all  that  the  selections  may 
be  too  difficult,  it  would  seem  advisable  on  the  whole  to  have 
separate  texts  for  conversational  practice,  carefully  organized 
as  regards  vocabulary,  content,  and  form.  Graded  material 
dealing  with  foreign  life  and  customs  is  suggested. 

Work  in  speaking  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  kinds  : 
(i)  highly  formal  in  character,  (2)  a  more  natural  kind,  which 
emphasizes  the  thought  as  well  as  the  form  side  of  the  material. 
The  first  kind  will  consist  of  various  changes  in  the  sentences 
read,  in  person,  number,  tense,  voice  of  the  verb,  and  sub- 
stitutions of  pronoun  for  noun,  etc.  Questions  may  be  put 
in  such  a  way  as  to  force  the  pupil  to  employ  the  desired  gram- 
matical form.  The  second  type  will  consist  largely  of  rapid 
questions  and  answers  upon  the  day's  reading.  In  the  earlier 
stages  the  questions  and  answers  would  closely  follow  the 
printed  text,  later  the  text  might  be  used  merely  as  a  starting 
point  for  conversational  practice,  the  pupils  drawing  their 
answers  from  their  general  knowledge  of  the  spoken  language. 
From  time  to  time  the  class  would  be  encouraged  to  relate 


Modern  Languages  427 

the  contents  of  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  material  thus  in- 
tensively studied.  Success,  however,  in  the  later  stages  de- 
pends upon  the  thoroughness  with  which  the  so-called  ques- 
tion and  answer  work  is  done.  In  any  high  school  course 
simple  questioning  on  a  suitable  connected  text  should  occupy 
the  major  portion  of  the  time  in  oral  practice.  It  is  only  in 
this  way  that  fluency  and  the  requisite  accuracy  are  assured. 

Grammar.  —  Whatever  other  value  the  study  of  grammar 
may  have  in  the  mental  training  of  the  pupil,  its  immediate 
value  is  to  enable  him  to  acquire  the  foreign  language  on  the 
form  side  systematically  and  intelligently.  Only  essential 
forms  and  usages  should  be  selected,  and  these  should  be 
taught  by  constant  practice  rather  than  by  drill  upon  rules. 
Correct  habits  of  use  should  be  regarded  as  of  more  importance 
than  the  mere  learning  of  paradigms.  In  general,  the  treat- 
ment of  grammar  should  be  inductive  at  least  in  spirit.  Tra- 
ditional grammar  teaching  regards  the  translation  of  a  number 
of  detached  sentences  from  and  into  the  mother  tongue  as  the 
chief  exercise  for  clinching  the  previously  studied  formal  rules. 
More  recent  teaching,  however,  lays  great  stress  upon  ex- 
ercises planned  to  give  a  great  deal  of  oral  and  \vritten  practice 
carried  on  in  the  foreign  language  itself.  Some  of  these  ex- 
ercises have  been  suggested  under  the  preceding  topic,  such 
as  changes  of  tense,  number  and  person,  etc.,  based  upon  dis- 
connected sentences  or  connected  reading  material.  The 
filling  out  of  appropriate  endings  and  a  large  variety  of  exercises 
all  serve  to  give  more  copious  and  quicker  drill  than  the  older 
translation  method.  Of  greater  importance  than  these, 
however,  are  the  more  or  less  formal  question  and  answer  drills, 
in  which  the  teacher's  questions  force  the  pupil  to  employ 
the  new  grammatical  principle  or  form.  Many  of  these  ques- 
tions will  be  type  questions,  that  is,  one  question  will  admit 
of  a  comparatively  large  number  of  answers,  each  one  of  which, 
however,  will  contain  the  required  principle  or  form.  The 
judicious  employment  of  this  so-called  living  grammar  teach- 


428  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ing  is  of  great  advantage  in  giving  quick,  definite,  and  withal 
interesting  drills  which  to  a  large  extent  are  wanting  under 
the  still  widely  prevailing  plan  of  translating  detached  sen- 
tences into  the  foreign  tongue. 

In  a  course  lasting  four  years  it  seems  highly  desirable,  in 
German  at  least,  to  have  the  first  grammatical  course  extend 
over  two  years.  The  last  two  years  might  then  be  spent  in 
giving  richer  practice  and  somewhat  broader  treatment.  This 
plan,  however,  is  not  practiced  in  the  majority  of  schools, 
with  the  result  that  pupils  in  the  higher  classes  are  often  weak 
both  in  knowledge  of  forms  and  in  the  ability  to  use  them 
accurately  for  the  expression  of  simple  thoughts  in  the  foreign 
language. 

Written  Work.  —  Work  in  writing  should  accompany  at 
every  step  the  oral  work  in  the  German  classroom.  As  a  rule, 
it  should  follow  directly  the  oral  development  of,  and  drill 
upon,  the  grammatical  topic.  After  the  material  has  been 
first  threshed  out  orally  in  the  classroom,  it  should  then  be  put 
into  writing,  for  the  time  being  the  final  form.  As  not  every- 
thing can  be  written,  the  work  should  represent  that  which 
is  typical  and  essential  in  the  lesson  or  series  of  lessons.  The 
results  obtained  from  writing  are  fairly  obvious.  Hand  and 
eye  serve  to  fix  the  oral  impressions,  and  it  checks  up  the  work 
on  a  given  topic.  Further,  it  makes  for  greater  definiteness 
and  flexibility  in  the  work  done  outside  of  class.  In  the  early 
stages,  however,  it  is  better  to  have  much  of  the  written  work 
done  in  class,  and  thus  controlled  and  corrected  at  every  step. 
But  wherever  done  it  is  a  wise  procedure  to  ask  of  pupils  that 
they  shall  employ  in  their  written  exercises  only  the  materials, 
vocabulary,  and  principles,  with  which  they  are  quite  familiar 
through  previous  study. 

Work  in  writing  may  be  of  two  kinds :  (i)  exercises  largely 
imitative  in  character,  (2)  exercises  in  translation,  involving 
comparison  between  the  mother  and  the  foreign  tongue.  The 
latter  type  is  still  largely  employed  in  all  stages  of  the  course. 


Modern  Languages  429 

Recently,  however,  teachers  have  found  that  written  exercises, 
similar  to,  and  in  fact  growing  out  of,  the  conversational 
practice,  are  productive  of  better  results.  In  addition  to  the 
more  formal  exercises  which  emphasize  a  certain  grammatical 
fact,  the  simple  narrative  of  the  day's  lesson,  and  the  intro- 
duction in  the  upper  classes  of  the  letter  form  of  composition, 
offer  a  rich  field  for  development.  Over  against  this  rather 
modern  procedure,  we  find  a  large  proportion  of  teachers  still 
faithful  to  exercises  in  translating  from  the  mother  tongue 
into  the  foreign.  In  the  early  stages  the  exercises  consist  of 
detached  sentences  arranged  under  the  appropriate  gram- 
matical headlines  in  the  textbook.  Later,  a  graded  composi- 
tion book,  containing  various  styles  of  writing,  is  employed. 
As  this  kind  of  work  prevails,  often  to  the  exclusion  or  at  least 
the  fitful  use  of  free  reproduction  and  other  non-translation 
kinds  of  exercises,  it  is  well  to  point  out  some  of  the  weaknesses 
of  the  practice,  (i)  Pupils  are  made  to  learn  the  foreign 
language  by  comparison  before  they  have  sufficient  knowl- 
edge of  its  vocabulary  and  principles.  (2)  The  composition 
books  are  far  too  ambitious  in  character.  The  acquisition 
of  speed  and  accuracy  should  be  regarded  more  highly  than 
the  ability  to  translate  difficult  material  inadequately.  Writ- 
ten work  of  all  kinds  ought  to  consist  largely  of  material  that 
the  pupil  can  readily  do  at  sight. 

Reading.  —  Since  reading  is  the  chief  aim  of  the  modern 
language  course,  great  care  should  be  exercised  not  only  in 
the  selection,  but  also  in  the  treatment  of  the  material.  It 
should  be  interesting,  possess  literary  merit,  and  be  well 
graded  as  to  difficulty  and  the  maturity  of  the  pupils.  At 
present,  the  general  tendency  is  to  read  stories,  and  in  the 
later  years  some  poems  and  plays  of  classical  writers.  Unity 
and  point  of  view  are  lacking  in  the  course.  It  is  organized 
only  as  to  general  amount  and  difficulty  required  for  entrance 
to  college.  It  would  seem  desirable  to  increase  the  kind  of 
reading  dealing  with  facts,  particularly  with  those  that  give 


430  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

an  insight  into  the  life,  customs,  and  history  of  the  foreign 
peoples.  In  a  four-year  German  course  we  might,  for 
example,  group  the  reading  material  around  some  definite 
points  such  as  these :  first  year,  a  general  introduction  to 
German  life ;  second  year,  legends  and  sagas  and  the  Mdrchen; 
third  year,  some  few  facts  of  history  as  illustrated  by  the  lives 
of  great  personalities ;  fourth  year,  at  least  one  literary 
masterpiece  and  brief  sketches  of  the  lives  of  such  men  as 
Goethe,  Lessing,  and  Schiller. 

The  traditional  treatment  of  reading  is  that  of  translation 
into  the  mother  tongue.  More  recently  systematic  attempts 
have  been  made,  notably  in  Germany,  to  reduce  the  amount 
of  time  spent  upon  this  exercise  and  to  increase  the  ability 
of  the  class  to  study  and  understand  the  foreign  text  without 
the  aid  of  habitual  translation.  Clearness  of  understanding 
in  the  early  stages  is  effected  by  selecting  simple,  objective 
material  and  teaching  it  by  means  of  close  questioning  in  the 
foreign  tongue,  explaining  new  words  by  the  use  of  objects,  pic- 
tures, or  gesture,  by  opposites,  by  the  study  of  word  formation, 
by  definition  in  the  foreign  language,  or  even  by  translating 
troublesome  words  and  phrases.  If  the  work  is  systematically 
done  from  the  outset,  translation  may  be  limited  largely  to 
the  more  difficult  passages,  and  the  time  usually  devoted  to  it 
be  employed  in  various  exercises  carried  on  within  the  language 
being  taught.  How  much  shall  be  translated  is  a  question, 
however,  which  individual  teachers  will  always  have  to  decide 
for  themselves.  Length  of  course  and  the  equipment  of  the 
teacher  are  the  controlling  factors.  It  is  obvious  that  trans- 
lation is  the  quickest  apparent  test  of  the  pupil's  understanding 
of  a  passage,  although  where  it  is  used  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  exercises  upon  the  text,  some  of  its  weaknesses  may 
be  summed  up  as  follows. 

In  general,  translation  is  largely  an  exercise  in  the  use  of  the 
mother  tongue.  As  an  exercise  for  teaching  the  foreign 
language,  it  is  wasteful  of  time  as  a  vocabulary  builder. 


Modern  Languages  431 

Since  the  pupil  exchanges  symbol  for  symbol,  it  neglects  almost 
wholly  the  acquisition  of  the  form  side  of  the  foreign  language, 
and  as  usually  carried  on,  it  lays  but  little  stress  upon  the 
thought  side.  It  has  little  or  no  influence  upon  the  growth 
of  language  sense  (SprachgefuhT).  The  foreign  language  is 
kept  in  the  background,  and  is  used  as  a  mere  vehicle  for 
exercising  the  mother  tongue. 

RESULTS  OF  SCHOOL  WORK. —What,  briefly,  should 
be  the  outcome  of  a  four-year  high  school  course  in  modern 
languages  ?  The  pupils  should  be  able  to  read  ordinary  prose 
or  poetry  suitable  in  range  of  thought  to  their  years  of  under- 
standing. By  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  materials 
should  be  selected  from  modern  authors.  While  there  can 
be  no  objection  to  the  appreciative  study  by  the  pupils  of  one 
or  two  of  the  classic  dramas  or  other  forms  of  literature,  the 
reading  of  the  classics  in  general  should  be  deferred  to  the 
college  period  of  modern  language  instruction.  By  the  selection 
of  reading  material  and  by  all  other  means  that  the  teacher  can 
devise,  the  pupils  should  have  been  taught  some  elementary  facts 
regarding  the  life  and  customs  of  the  foreign  peoples.  They 
should  have  obtained  by  careful  teaching  an  accurate  working 
knowledge  of  the  essentials  of  grammar  in  order  that  their 
growth  in  knowledge  of  the  language  shall  always  be  upon 
a  solid  foundation.  In  addition,  the  pupils  should  have  ac- 
quired the  power  to  use  a  small  stock  of  common  words  in 
speaking  or  in  writing.  They  ought,  for  example,  to  be  able 
to  answer  questions  based  upon  an  easy  story  read  to  them, 
or  to  give  its  contents  in  simple  language  either  orally  or  in 
writing.  Finally,  they  ought  to  have  some  facility  in  con- 
versing about  simple  matters  of  daily  life  and  be  able  to  express 
their  doings  in  letter  form. 

PLACE  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES  IN  THE  CURRICU- 
LUM.—  The  study  of  modern  languages  in  the  schools  was 
largely  developed  during  the  nineteenth  century.  Before  that 
period  school  instruction  was  not  very  widespread,  nor  were 


432  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  foreign  languages  given  anything  but  a  very  minor  place 
in  the  school  program. 

United  States.  In  Colleges.  —  Until  the  Revolutionary 
war,  American  colleges,  as  a  rule,  followed  about  the  same 
course  of  study  as  was  found  in  the  universities  of  the  mother 
country.  Latin  and  Greek,  Hebrew,  some  logic  and  philos- 
ophy, rhetoric,  elementary  mathematics,  and  physics  were 
regarded  as  ample.  French  is  recorded  as  an  extra  study 
about  the  middle  of  the  century  at  Harvard.  The  first 
professorship  of  French  seems  to  have  been  established  at 
the  College  of  William  and  Mary  in  1779,  with  the  radical 
reorganization  of  the  curriculum  brought  about  by  Thomas 
Jefferson.  Students  at  Harvard,  not  preparing  for  the 
ministry,  could  substitute  French  for  Hebrew  in  the  8o's  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  But  for  a  good  many  years  the 
advance  made  by  French  and,  later,  German,  in  the  colleges 
was  extremely  slow.  It  was  an  extra  subject,  occupying  an 
inferior  position  in  the  same  list  as  music,  fencing,  etc.,  to  be 
paid  for  extra,  and  not  permitted  to  interfere  with  the  stated 
academic  duties.  George  Ticknor  was  made  Professor  of 
French,  Spanish,  and  Belles  Lettres  at  Harvard  in  1816. 
With  his  name  is  closely  associated  the  term  "  elective  sys- 
tem," which  much  later  came  to  play  such  a  role  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  work  of  all  higher  education  in  America. 
The  modern  languages  acted  as  the  first  entering  wedge  in 
the  attempt  at  breaking  up  the  rigid  curriculum  of  the  past. 
In  1825  the  University  of  Virginia  opened  its  doors,  and 
modern  languages  formed  one  of  the  ten  schools  comprised 
in  the  plan.  In  six  months  the  modern  language  school  was 
second  in  numbers  after  mathematics,  and  larger  than  the 
school  of  ancient  languages. 

Very  little  progress  in  modern  language  studies  was  then 
made  for  over  a  generation  until,  in  fact,  the  idea  of  elective 
studies  again  rapidly  spread  during  the  period  of  the  presidency 
of  Charles  W.  Eliot  at  Harvard.  At  present,  the  modern 


Modern  Languages  433 

languages  are  among  the  largest  departments  in  the  Colleges 
of  Arts. 

College  Entrance  Requirements.  —  If  the  development  in 
the  colleges  was  so  slow,  the  condition  in  secondary  schools 
is  readily  understood.  It  was  not  until  1875  that  a  modern 
language  was  required  for  admission  to  college. 

At  the  present  time  many  colleges  demand  a  reading  knowl- 
edge of  French  or  German,  or  both,  for  the  several  degrees, 
although  there  is  nothing  like  uniformity  except  in  colleges 
exclusively  for  women.  As  late  as  1896-1897,  of  432  institu- 
tions only  14  per  cent  required  a  modern  language  for  the  B.A. 
degree;  of  123  institutions  4i|  per  cent  required  a  modern 
language  for  the  Bachelor  of  Philosophy,  the  modern  language 
being  in  lieu  of  Greek.  Similar  percentages  are  shown  in  the 
requirements  for  the  degrees  of  B.S.  and  B.L.  In  the  same 
year  only  123  out  of  318  colleges  and  scientific  schools  re- 
quired a  modern  language  for  admission. 

Reports  on  the  Secondary  Curriculum  and  Methods.  — 
The  Report,  published  in  1899,  of  the  Committee  of  Twelve, 
appointed  by  the  Modern  Language  Association,  has  been 
of  great  assistance  in  fixing  standards  of  modern  language 
instruction  in  the  schools.  The  method  favored  by  the  com- 
mittee was  on  the  whole  the  so-called  reading  method ;  that 
is,  copious  reading  of  graded  texts,  hand  in  hand  with  the  study 
of  grammatical  essentials.  But  the  committee  also  advised, 
particularly  in  the  longer  courses,  the  introduction  of  some 
oral  work,  and  other  practices  of  the  German  direct  method. 
Three  grades  of  attainments  were  defined  in  the  Report,  and 
reading  texts  for  each  suggested.  The  elementary  grade, 
reached  normally  after  two  years  of  study,  represents  the 
minimum  requirement  now  usually  set  for  entrance  to  col- 
lege. The  work  of  the  two  higher  grades,  the  intermediate 
and  the  advanced,  is  intended  to  take  one  and  two  years' 
longer  study  than  the  elementary.  The  Committee's  Report 
was  early  adopted  by  the  College  Entrance  Examination 


434  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Board  and  the  combined  influence  has  done  much  to  bring 
about  unity  in  admission  requirements.  The  aim  of  instruc- 
tion and  the  work  to  be  done  in  the  various  grades  is  about 
as  follows : 

For  the  elementary  course.  Ability  to  translate  at  sight 
very  easy  dialogue  or  narrative  prose,  to  put  into  the  foreign 
language  short  English  sentences  taken  from  the  language  of 
everyday  life  or  based  upon  a  text  given  for  translation,  and 
to  answer  questions  upon  the  rudiments  of  grammar.  The 
committee  suggested  that  the  amount  of  reading  to  be  done 
should,  in  French,  consist  of  350  to  375  pages;  in  German,  of 
225  to  250  pages.  In  addition  to  careful  drill  upon  pronuncia- 
tion, abundant  easy  exercises  of  various  kinds  should  serve 
to  fix  the  essentials  of  grammar  and  to  cultivate  readiness  in 
the  reproduction  of  natural  forms  of  expression. 

For  the  intermediate  course.  Ability  to  read  at  sight  prose 
of  ordinary  difficulty,  to  put  into  the  foreign  language  a  con- 
nected passage  of  simple  English  based  upon  the  text  read, 
and  to  answer  more  difficult  grammatical  questions.  The 
work  to  be  done  in  reading  should  consist  of  about  400  to 
600  pages  of  French,  or  400  pages  of  German,  with  constant 
practice  in  giving  paraphrases  of  portions  of  the  matter  read, 
together  with  more  extended  study  of  the  grammar  of  the 
foreign  language. 

For  the  advanced  course.  Ability  to  read  at  sight  difficult 
French  not  earlier  than  that  of  the  seventeenth  century,  or 
any  German  literature  of  the  past  150  years  that  is  free  from 
textual  difficulties,  to  put  into  the  foreign  language  a  passage 
of  simple  English  prose,  to  answer  German  questions  relating 
to  the  lives  and  works  of  the  great  writers  studied;  in  French, 
to  carry  on  a  simple  conversation.  The  work  of  the  last 
year  should  consist  of  about  600-1000  pages  of  standard  French 
or  of  about  500  pages  of  German  literature  respectively. 
Pupils  should  also  write  numerous  short  themes  as  well  as 
translations  of  English  into  the  foreign  language. 


Modern  Languages  435 

While  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twelve  remains 
even  to-day  an  excellent  statement,  on  the  whole,  of  the  aims 
and  methods  of  foreign  language  study,  the  experience  of  the 
past  years  warrants  a  restatement  in  regard  to  some  partic- 
ulars. Higher  standards  of  thoroughness,  greater  intensity 
and  variety  in  the  treatment  of  the  material  make  it  impossible 
to  cover  satisfactorily  the  number  of  pages  indicated  in  the 
report.  This  is  particularly  true  with  regard  to  the  inter- 
mediate and  advanced  grades.  The  reading  lists  also  re- 
quire adjustment  and  more  careful  standardization  for  the 
various  grades.  The  rate  of  advance  in  difficulty  from  the 
elementary  to  the  intermediate,  and,  again,  from  the  latter  to 
the  advanced,  is,  undoubtedly,  too  great,  and  out  of  harmony 
with  school  conditions.  Lastly,  the  importance  of  oral  and 
aural  training,  of  the  freer  use  of  the  foreign  language  in 
general,  would  now  be  more  greatly  accentuated. 

Within  the  past  few  years,  the  more  progressive  teachers, 
stimulated  by  the  results  obtained  by  the  reformers  in  Ger- 
many, have  been  trying  to  adapt  to  local  conditions  some  of 
the  aims  and  methods  employed  abroad.  More  attention 
has  been  given  to  oral  work,  and  to  teaching  pupils  freer  and 
better  control  of  the  language  in  general.  The  greatest  ob- 
stacle to  rapid  progress,  however,  is  bad  teaching,  for  outside 
the  large  city  systems  there  are  far  too  few  special  teachers 
possessing  adequate  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  specially 
trained  in  methods  of  presentation. 

Distribution  of  Pupils.  —  The  geographical  distribution  of 
pupils  studying  French  and  German  in  secondary  schools 
shows  remarkable  variations.  In  general,  the  North  Atlantic 
Division  leads  in  the  percentage  of  pupils  studying  both 
French  and  German  in  IQOQ-IQIO,  with  27.56  per  cent  as 
against  1 1 .50  per  cent  for  the  rest  of  the  United  States.  Again, 
the  New  England  states  lead  in  the  percentage  of  those  pur- 
suing French,  with  41.21  per  cent  as  against  6.44  per  cent 
for  the  rest  of  the  United  States.  On  the  other  hand,  the 


436  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

same  states  are  below  the  average  for  the  United  States  in 
the  percentage  of  pupils  studying  German,  17.21  per  cent  as 
against  23.69  per  cent  for  the  country  as  a  whole.  As  an 
example,  also,  of  the  great  variation  in  the  study  of  the  two 
languages  in  different  states,  49.09  per  cent  of  pupils  in  the 
New  Hampshire  secondary  schools  study  French  as  against 
0.69  per  cent  in  Indiana.  New  Jersey  leads  in  percentage  of 
pupils  pursuing  German,  with  41.39  per  cent,  while  the  per- 
centages for  South  Carolina,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi  are 
0.34  per  cent,  0.72  per  cent,  and  1.69  per  cent  respectively. 

Germany.  —  Although  Germany  was  much  in  advance  of 
other  countries,  the  introduction  of  French  into  the  schools 
did  not  begin  to  make  any  headway  until  the  eighteenth  century. 
Before  that  time  its  study  was  confined  to  private  instruction  or 
to  the  schools  attended  by  the  upper  classes  (Rilterakademien) . 
By  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however,  most 
Prussian  Gymnasien  offered  French  as  an  optional  subject. 
Owing  to  patriotic  reasons,  it  was  banished  from  the  schools 
in  1816,  to  be  taken  up  more  vigorously  a  few  years  later. 
In  1831  French  became  obligatory  in  Prussia,  beginning  in 
Tertia.  Other  states  followed  later,  Saxony  in  1846,  Bavaria 
in  1854.  The  study  of  English  was  much  slower  in  its  develop- 
ment. The  relations  between  the  countries  were  in  earlier 
times  not  strong,  but  were  kept  alive  by  trade,  traveling,  and, 
notably,  beginning  with  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
by  the  increased  interest  in  English  literature.  It  was, 
however,  not  until  as  late  as  1859  that  English  was  made 
obligatory  in  the  Realschulen  of  Prussia,  although  of  course 
it  had  been  gradually  introduced  in  the  schools  during  the 
first  half  of  the  century.  Since  the  refounding  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire,  and  particularly  during  the  last  two  decades, 
the  study  of  English  has  made  rapid  advances.  In  1900  an 
imperial  edict  allowed  the  substitution  of  English  for  French 
in  the  three  upper  classes  of  the  gymnasium  (Oil,  UI,  and 
OI),  French  remaining  an  optional  subject.  It  also  made 


Modern  Languages  437 

possible  the  substitution  of  other  subjects  for  Greek  in 
Unlcrtertia,  Obertertia,  and  Untersekunda,  in  which  case 
three  of  the  six  hours  arc  given  to  English,  and  the  other 
three  are  distributed  among  French  and  mathematics  and 
the  sciences. 

Method.  —  The  method  of  modern  language  instruction  in 
Germany  has,  from  early  times,  swung  between  two  poles,  - 
the  synthetic  and  the  analytic.  Both  types  of  instruction 
have  existed  at  all  times  side  by  side,  although,  during  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  method  employed 
in  the  schools  was  on  the  whole  synthetic  and  a  close  imitation 
of  the  severely  grammatical  procedure  employed  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Latin  and  Greek.  This  was  due  in  part  to  a  great  lack 
of  properly  trained  teachers,  for  the  universities  were  late  in 
establishing  chairs  of  French  and  English,  the  majority  com- 
ing after  1850.  The  new  facilities  for  study  produced  in 
time  an  organized  and  well-schooled  body  of  modern  language 
teachers.  Particularly  during  the  last  generation  have  great 
changes  been  made,  bringing  progress  toward  better  ways  and 
means  of  teaching  the  subject,  so  that  at  the  present  time  no 
other  country  equals  Germany  in  the  excellence  of  its  modern 
language  instruction.  The  method  now  widely  employed,  often 
called  the  direct  method,  is  analytic  in  character,  and  is  a 
revolt  against  the  older  formal  grammatical  procedure.  The 
chief  points  are  as  follows :  Reading  occupies  a  central  posi- 
tion in  the  work  in  place  of  grammar,  and  is  selected  so  as  to 
give  pupils  a  clear  idea  of  the  life,  thought,  and  civilization  of 
the  foreign  people.  In  all  stages,  but  particularly  in  the 
earlier,  great  emphasis  is  laid  upon  oral  practice.  Indeed, 
the  emphasis  upon  the  spoken  language  and  upon  written 
exercises  growing  out  of  the  oral  work  is  a  salient  characteristic 
of  the  method.  Translations  from  and  into  the  vernacular 
cease  to  be  any  longer  a  regular  exercise.  Grammar  study  is 
reduced  to  essentials,  and  taught  largely  inductively.  This, 
in  general,  represents  the  plan  of  the  more  radical  reformers. 


438  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 


PH 

J? 
t— i 

O 

^J 

u 


H 

CO 


U 

5? 

a 

al 


1 

O    O^   t"—»   *^"J   ^           G*» 
CN     cs     ^*    co    ^O           ^O 

^O   OO    ^O    ro  ^O            ^**        H 

M       CS       M                              M       '      O 

^ 

o 

i 

--*    -     »  - 

,* 

3 

co    ^"    *^"            <N             CO 

.«*       .        *     B 

** 

0 

CO    ^f"    ^t"             <N              T$* 

-.„*-.      .5 

** 

3 

CO     ^"     ^    *O    <N               Tf 

CO 

O 
O 

CO    ^    ^                  "O     '    ^ 

** 

h-  1 

O 

'            ~"~^ 

u 

CO 

CO    "^t"    ^ 

u, 

3 

<N     ^^  \O    ^O             ^O 

I-H 

CO 
CO 

^-                     - 

IO 

a 

r^*    l-O  ^O    ^O             ''O 

&-< 

PH 

1         1   5 

-0 

> 

^0         0 

O 

1  1 

> 

o  o       o 

H 

1                           B 

H 

.    C      . 

,       •       . 

CO 

O 

S    .    * 

t—  i 

& 

w 

CO 

CJ 

."ti 

S 

O 

g       . 

w 

•~            -    g 

j-.             a 

Gymnasium  .  .  .  . 
Realgymnasium.  .  . 
Oberrealschllle  . 
Realschule  . 
Reform  Gymnasium  . 
and  Reform  Realgyr 
with  common  found; 

f- 
^    >>            * 

'    '    *    '  B  J&P         £ 

'  s  '  "i  cS      = 

•       §    J=2          •       C       r-                      V; 

c  -s  ^       g  £  g     i 
S  2  €  o  >>  .o  •  2     c 

•-    ~  J£'  "3  ^    SJ    rt    1 
2    ~    rt  ,5    c  P^  ~3 

£  if  1  1  fe  "5  § 

C^3             »    ,        ^3             —  '             1-4             ^             , 
C3     —  '     r3   •—  -»     ^-»     y 

>»  o  ^    o    o    •"   •*• 

C  Pi  C  &  & 

c!  c3 

[JH  W 

a 
O 


Moderti  Languages  439 

The  more  conservative,  forming  probably  the  majority,  still 
favor  the  retention  of  translation,  and  greater  emphasis  upon 
the  grammatical  course. 

,  The  work,  particularly  of  the  more  advanced  reformers, 
has  been  the  subject  of  much  criticism,  especially  in  the  last 
decade,  partly  because  of  its  too  utilitarian  tendencies,  and 
partly  because  of  the  general  instability  of  pupils'  knowledge, 
mainly  on  the  formal  side.  The  movement,  however,  rep- 
resents a  great  step  forward  in  both  aim  and  practice.  Mod- 
ern language  method  has  never  before  been  so  efficiently  and 
rationally  organized  with  the  idea  of  giving  power  to  the 
pupil  to  use  the  foreign  language  in  reading,  in  writing,  and 
in  speaking. 

France.  —  German  and  English  are  the  modern  languages 
most  studied  in  the  French  public  schools,  instruction  in 
Spanish  and  Italian  being  confined  almost  exclusively  to 
places  near  the  borders  of  the  respective  countries.  Of  the 
two  languages  German  is  chosen  more  frequently  in  the  boys' 
schools.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  required  for 
entrance  to  the  military  school  at  Saint-Cyr  and  the  Ecole 
P olylcclmique .  English  is  more  favored  in  the  girls'  schools. 

Instruction  in  the  modern  languages  was  made  optional  in 
lye ccs  and  colleges  in  1821,  though  but  little  weight  was  at- 
tached to  their  study,  and  but  meager  time  allowed.  In 
1858  the  stuck'  became  compulsory  in  the  classical  course, 
and  in  1847  m  the  "  modern  "  course.  In  1880  modern  lan- 
guages were  studied  in  every  class,  with  a  total  of  twenty- 
nine  hours  per  week.  The  kind  of  instruction,  and  the  results 
obtained,  were,  however,  unsatisfactory.  Translation  from 
and  into  the  foreign  tongue,  and  much  formal  grammar  were 
the  chief  means  employed  almost  everywhere,  even  as  late  as 
1896,  although  the  ministerial  instructions  of  1890  were  in 
theory  in  advance  of  any  of  the  German  official  regulations 
of  about  the  same  time.  The  provinces  in  particular  were 
verv  backward.  The  reform,  which  had  alreadv  been  in 


44°  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

progress  a  dozen  years  or  more  in  Germany,  had  as  yet  made 
scarcely  any  impression  upon  the  work  in  France.  In  1902, 
however,  the  whole  subject  of  modern  language  instruction 
was  radically  changed.  The  aims  and  practices  of  the  ad- 
vanced German  reformers  were  taken  over,  stock  and  barrel, 
and  formulated  in  the  instructions  of  the  i5th  November,  1901. 
Since  that  time  most  earnest  attempts  have  been  made  by 
the  government  and  the  teachers  to  carry  out  the  new  radical 
program,  and  apparently  with  considerable  success. 

After  six  years'  trial  it  was  found  necessary  to  be  more 
conservative  in  the  work,  particularly  in  the  upper  classes. 
The  new  instructions  of  1908  confirm  and  strengthen  the  plan 
of  work  done  in  the  lower  classes.  For  the  fifth  and  fourth 
classes  translation  into  the  mother  tongue,  not  mentioned  in 
the  earlier  instructions,  is  suggested  as  a  means  of  control  in 
addition  to  the  study  of  the  reading  text  by  exercises  in  the 
foreign  language.  The  chief  changes,  however,  are  made  in 
the  instructions  dealing  with  the  work  of  the  second  and  first 
classes.  The  earlier  program  emphasized  reading  material 
dealing  with  the  life,  civilization,  and  history  of  the  literature 
of  the  foreign  people  ;  the  new  lays  stress  entirely  upon  litera- 
ture, pure  and  simple.  Moreover,  one  of  the  chief  exercises 
of  the  last  period  is  the  cultivation  of  the  art  of  translation 
into  the  mother  tongue.  These  changes,  however,  are  very 
slight  on  the  whole.  France  leads  the  world,  officially,  in 
the  advocacy  of  the  radical  direct  method  of  modern  language 
teaching. 

Modern  languages  may  now  be  studied  for  eleven  of  the 
twelve  years  in  the  French  lycccs  and  colleges  for  boys.  In 
the  second  year  of  the  preparatory  division  and  in  the  eighth 
and  seventh  forms  of  the  elementary  division  the  subject  is 
very  inadequately  represented  by  two  hours  for  each.  At- 
tempts to  eliminate  the  study  and  to  defer  the  regular  instruc- 
tion until  the  sixth  form  have  thus  far  failed.  In  the  follow- 
ing four  forms,  constituting  the  first  cycle,  one  modern  Ian- 


Modern  Languages 


441 


guagc  is  studied  five  hours  per  week  in  each  of  the  four  years. 
In  the  first  two  forms  of  the  second  cycle  the  number  of  hours 
devoted  to  modern  languages  depends  upon  which  of  the  four 
possible  groups  of  courses  or  sections  the  pupil  elects  to  pur- 
sue. The  following  is  a  table  for  these  two  years : 


SECTION  A 

STCCTION  15 

SECTION  C 

SECTION  D 

Latin  and  Greek 

Latin  and  Modern 
Language 

Latin  and  Science 

Science  and 
Modern  Language 

Modern 

Language 

2 

3 
41 

2 

3 
41 

In  the  highest  form  there  is  a  twofold  division  into  the 
philosophy  and  mathematics  forms,  each  with  two  sections, 
A  and  B. 


PHILOSOPHY 

MATHEMATICS 

Section  A 

Section  B 

Section  A 

Section  H 

Modern 
Languages 

2  " 

\   I 

ta« 

2 

f   I 

(23 

The  modern  language  course  in  girls'  secondary  schools  is 
begun  in  the  infant  class  and  continued  as  an  obligatory  study 
throughout  all  the  nine  years.  In  the  last  two  years  a  second 
modern  language  may  be  taken.  The  following  is  the  number 
of  hours  per  week  in  each  of  the  classes:  2-^,  2§,  2-^,  2-|,  3, 
3,  3,  3,  (2);'  3  (2).' 

The  following  is  the  number  of  hours  given  to  modern 
languages  in  the  usual  three  classes  of  the  French  higher 

1  Second  language  begun  and  continued.  -  Optional. 

3  Pupils  have  the  right  aa  to  distribution  of  these  hours. 

4  Second  language  optional. 


442  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

elementary  schools,  the  ecoles  primaires  superieures  and  ecoles 
pratiques  de  commerce  el  cF Industrie. 


BOYS'  SCHOOLS 

I 

II 

in 

General  Course                          ,  . 
.  ,  „           \  ecole  supeneure 
Commercial  Course  j 

3 

3 
4 

2 

4 

Commercial  Course     (ecole  pratique} 

6 

6 

6 

GIRLS'  SCHOOLS 

General  Course  (ecole  superieurc) 

3 

3 

3 

Commercial  Course  (ecole  pratique) 

4 

4* 

4i 

England.  —  The  status  of  modern  foreign  languages  in 
English  schools  of  secondary  grade  is  still  in  the  making. 
Among  the  factors  that  have  retarded  their  growth  are :  - 
(i)  Lack  of  any  national  system  of  public  instruction  before 
1902  ;  (2)  The  influence  of  the  older  universities  and  public 
schools  —  strong  bulwarks  of  classical  training ;  (3)  Until 
a  few  years  ago,  the  overemphasis  of  science  and  art  subjects 
in  non-endowed  schools,  in  order  to  obtain  state  grants  of 
money,  and  the  consequent  neglect  of  the  humanities  ;  (4)  The 
attitude  of  the  Board  of  Education  towards  modern  languages, 
its  insistence  upon  Latin  as  one  of  the  two  foreign  languages 
taught  in  every  school.  In  the  most  recent  circular,  however, 
it  has  taken  a  more  liberal  attitude  and  has  yielded  so  far  as 
to  say  that  provision  for  the  study  of  Latin  need  not  be  made 
in  every  school,  but  only  in  one  out  of  every  group  of  schools. 
The  present  ratio  of  pupils  taking  French  to  those  taking 
German  is  about  five  to  one.  Since  it  is  usually  possible  for 
pupils  to  take  only  two  foreign  languages  of  which  Latin  either 
must  be,  or  almost  invariably  is,  one,  German  goes  to  the 
wall.  Indeed  many  feel  it  is  in  a  state  of  serious  decline. 

According  to  the  Report  on  the  conditions  of  modern  lan- 
guage teaching  presented  in  1908  at  the  meeting  of  the  Modern 
Language  Association,  the  average  age  of  pupils  beginning 


Modern  Languages  443 

French  was  i  r  ;  of  98  schools  of  the  local  type  reporting,  74 
began  French  first,  4  schools  Latin,  and  20  began  the  two 
languages  simultaneously.  German,  if  studied  at  all,  is 
taken  up  at  14.  This  gives  little  time  to  the  study  of  this 
language  where  the  leaving  age  is  16  or  17.  Four  or  five  45- 
minute  lessons  a  week  are  quite  usual  for  the  foreign  language. 
The  teaching  has  shown  great  improvement  in  recent 
years.  In  the  past,  particularly  in  the  public  schools  and 
the  numerous  private  schools,  the  scanty  instruction  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  foreigner  who  was,  far  too  often,  treated  as  an 
outsider  in  the  social  scheme.  To-day  there  are  an  increasing 
number  of  men  and  women  —  trained  at  the  universities  or 
by  study  abroad  —  who  have  done  much  to  put  modern  lan- 
guage work  in  a  better  strategic  position.  Within  the  past  ten 
years  or  so,  the  principles  of  the  German  reform  method  have 
found  many  advocates.  The  Modern  Language  Association 
with  its  excellent  organ,  Modern  Language  Teaching,  has  been 
a  powerful  instrument  in  arousing  apathetic  official  boards 
and  in  creating  public  interest  in  the  cause,  and,  particularly, 
in  threshing  out  and  adapting  the  so-called  "  direct  method  " 
to  English  conditions.  Judging  from  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee referred  to  above,  reform  teaching  has  already  made 
considerable  headway,  especially  in  the  elementary  stages  of 
instruction.  The  various  university  and  other  examining 
bodies  that  play  such  a  role  in  English  education  have  also 
begun  to  set  papers  more  in  keeping  with  modern  aims  of 
foreign  language  teaching. 

TOPICS    FOR   FURTHER    STUDY 

1.  The  range  of  active  vocabulary  in  the  modern  language  course. 

2.  The  use  of  illustrative  material. 

3.  The  use  of  the  talking  machine. 

4.  The  organization  of  reviews. 

5.  The  applications  of  the  Gouin  method. 

6.  The  relation  between  class  and  home  work. 

7.  The  study  of  typical  errors  of  pupils. 


444  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

8.  Prescribed  reading  for  entrance  to  college. 

9.  Examination  papers  as  a  tes   of  power  and  of  knowledge. 

10.  The  organization  of  drill  exercises. 

11.  The  use  of  the  mother  tongue  in  foreign  language  instruction. 

12.  The  teaching  of  grammar  in  the  foreign  language. 

13.  The  relation  between  speaking  and  reading  in  the  higher  stages 
of  the  course. 

14.  The  aim  and  organization  of  written  work  in  the  higher  stages. 

15.  The  acquisition  of  the  foreign  language  vocabulary. 

P.EFERENCES 

BAGSTER-COLLINS,  E.  W.     The  Teaching  of  German  in  Secondary  Schools. 

New  York,  1904. 

BAHLSEN,  L.     The  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages.     Boston,  1905. 
BAUMANN,  F.     Reform  und  Antireform  im  neusprachlichen   Unterricht. 

Berlin,  1902. 
BREUL,   K.      The   Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages.     London, 

1908. 

BUTTNER,  H.     Die  Muttersprache  im  neusprachlichen  Unterricht.     Mar- 
burg, 1910. 
EGGERT,   B.     Der  psychologische  Zusammenhang   in  der   Didaktik   des 

neusprachlichen  Reformunterrichts.     Berlin,  1904. 
England,  Board  of  Education.     Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects, 

Vol.  II   (1898),  pp.   648-679;    Teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in 

Belgium  and  Holland,  Vol.  Ill  (1898),  pp.  461-533;  Teaching  of 

Modern  Languages  in  Germany  (several  articles). 

FLAGSTAD,  CHR.  B.     Psychologic  der  Sprachpddagogik.     Leipzig,  1913. 
HANDSCHIN.  C.  H.     The  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in  the  United 

States.     Washington,  1913. 
HOVELAQUE,    E.     Deux    Conferences  sur    V Enseignement  dcs  Langues 

Vivantcs.     Paris,  1910. 

JESPERSEN,  P.     How  to  Teach  a  Foreign  Language.     New  York,  1904. 
MUNCH,    W.     Didaktik    und    Methodik    des  franzosischen    Untcrrichts. 

Miinchen,  1910. 
QUIEHL,  K.     Franzosische  Aussprache  und  Sprachfertigkeit.     Marburg, 

1906. 
Report   of  Committee   on   Modern  Languages.     Washington,    1899,  also 

Boston. 
WALTER,   M.     Englisch  nach  dcm  Frankfurter  Rcformplan.     Marburg, 

1910. 
Zu;-  Mcthcdik  dcs  neusprachlichen  Untcrrichts.     Marburg,  1908. 


Modern  Languages  445 

WOIILFKIL,  P.     Dcr  Kampf  um  die  neusprachlichc   Unterrichtsmethode. 

Frankfurt,  1901. 
WOLFROMM,  A.     La  Question  dcs  Methodcs.     Revue  de  I 'Enscignement 

dcs  Langucs  vivantes.     Paris   1902-1905. 

Periodicals :  — 

Die  Neucren  Sprachen.     Marburg. 
Modern  Language  Notes.     Baltimore. 
Modern  Language  Teaching.     London. 

Monatshefte  fur  dcutsche  Sprache  und  Pddagogik.     Milwaukee. 
Revue  de  I ^Enscignement  dcs  Langucs  vivantes.     Paris. 
Zeitschrift  fiir  franzosischen  und  englischen  Unterricht.     Berlin. 


CHAPTER  XII 


EDUCATIONAL  FUNCTIONS  AND  VALUES  OF  THE 

SCIENCES 

WHAT  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  SHOULD  DO  FOR  THE 
PUPILS.  —  Educational  values  of  great  importance  may  be 
derived  from  the  study  of  science,  if  it  be  taught  in  accordance 
with  the  scientific  method  and  from  the  broad,  humanistic 
viewpoint.  The  extent  to  which  these  values  are  likely  to 
be  realized  will  depend  on  the  natural  tastes  and  aptitudes 
of  the  pupils,  their  previous  and  their  present  environment, 
their  present  powers  and  abilities,  and  the  degree  of  perfection 
attained  in  the  methods  by  which  they  are  taught.  Cer- 
tainly these  values  are  more  likely  to  be  realized  in  the  pupils 
if  the  teacher  understands  them.  They  are  therefore  here 
enumerated  and  will  be  briefly  discussed.1 

1.  The  formation  of  some  useful  specific  habits,  —  through 
training,   routine,   rationalized  practice. 

2.  The  acquisition   of   useful   information,  —  through   me- 
thodical study,  instruction,  and  drill. 

3.  The    adoption    of    valuable    ideals,    or    "emotionalized 
standards, "    —  inculcated  through  the  inspiration  to  be  gained 
from  the  teacher,  from  the  lives  of  great  scientists,  and  from 
experiences  of  intimate  contact  with  nature. 

4.  The  acquisition  of  facility  in  the  use  of  facts,  ideas,  and 
methodical  thought  processes,  for  the  solution  of  problems,2 

1  Cf.  Bagley,  W.  C.,  Educational  Values.     Xe\v  York,  IQII,  Chap.  VII. 

2  In  this  chapter  the  word  problem  is  to  be  taken  in  its  broadest  sense,  mean- 
ing any  situation    involving  doubt,  in    which  thinking  is  required  in  order  to 
reach  a  solution.     Cf.  Dewey,  John,  //<>:;•  JI>  Think.     Heath  &  Co.     Boston, 
1910,  p.  9. 

446 


The  Natural  Sciences  447 

the  overcoming  of  difficulties,  and  the  accomplishment  of 
worthy  purposes,  —  through  the  mental  discipline  afforded  by 
properly  graded  practice  in  the  solving  of  scientific  problems. 

5.  The  development  of  taste,  and  power  of  appreciation,  - 
to  be  gained  through  a  clear  apprehension  of  unity,  adaptation, 
economy,  order,  and  system  in  nature  as  interpreted  by  science. 

6.  The  development  of  scientific   or  philosophic  insights, 
perspectives,  and  attitudes  of  mind  that  serve  as  safeguards 
to    the    intelligent    interpretation    of    contemporary    life,  — 
through  acquaintance  with  systems  of  organized  knowledge. 

Thus  science  teaching  has  a  training  function  in  the  for- 
mation of  right  habits,  an  instructional  function  in  the  stor- 
ing up  of  useful  information,  an  inspirational  function  aiming 
at  the  inculcation  of  worthy  ideals,  a  disciplinary  function, 
resulting  in  the  development  of  mental  power,  a  recreative 
function,  tending  toward  the  development  of  refined  tastes 
and  powers  of  appreciation,  and  an  interpretive  function, 
aiming  at  scientific  insight,  and  such  broad  mental  perspectives 
as  are  characteristic  of  a  cultivated,  well-balanced  mind. 

The  general  aim  of  education  from  the  modern  standpoint 
is  the  development,  in  each  individual,  of  the  highest  type  of 
personality,  combined  with  economic  and  social  efficiency. 
This  aim  takes  account  of  individual  differences  and  environ- 
mental differences.  Its  motto  is  "  The  socially  efficient 
individual." 

On  this  basis  the  hope  for  outcome  of  the  training  function 
is  the  realization  of  utilitarian,  economic,  or  vocational  values, 
-  "  bread-and-butter  values,"  so  to  speak  —  which  contribute 
to  the  ability  of  the  individual  to  support  himself  and  a  family. 
In  the  more  narrowly  vocational  studies  and  trade  studies, 
the  aim  is  toward  direct  utilitarian  value,  —  the  specific  kinds 
of  motor  skill  needed  in  particular  occupations,  such  as  car- 
pentry, electrical  construction,  plumbing,  cooking,  and  the 
like  ;  but  the  habits  formed  in  science  study  are  more  indirect, 
more  varied,  and  therefore  of  more  general  application.  If 
the  usefulness  of  these  habits  in  life  situations  outside  the 


448  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

school  are  clearly  shown,  so  that  the  pupils  realize  their  value 
as  permanent  acquisitions  that  will  help  them  in  their  every- 
day lives  in  definitely  apprehended  ways,  the  pupils  may 
form  ideals  of  carrying  these  habits  over  into  their  everyday 
lives.  Experiments  have  shown  that,  without  such  conscious 
ideals,  such  habits  are  not  at  all  likely  to  be  carried  over  in 
large  measure.1 

The  instructional  function  tends  toward  utilitarian  value, 
and  also  toward  preparatory  value.  Much  of  the  information 
gained  in  the  study  of  physics,  chemistry,  botany,  geology, 
and  zoology  is  necessary  in  preparing  for  the  higher  studies 
needed  in  the  professions  of  applied  science,  such  as  engineer- 
ing, scientific  agriculture,  teaching,  and  medicine. 

Both  the  training  and  the  instructional  function  result 
incidentally  in  a  certain  amount  of  conventional  value. 
Through  these  functions  the  pupil  may  acquire  some  of  the 
habits,  manners,  and  general  information  which  constitute 
that  minimum  of  conventional  culture,  without  which  society 
will  refuse  to  accord  him  respect,  and  the  lack  of  which  would 
stamp  him  as  a  boor,  an  ignoramus,  and  make  it  less  easy  for 
him  to  get  on  harmoniously  with  his  fellows. 

The  remaining  functions  contribute  to  socializing  value, 
because  they  enable  the  individual  who  has  profited  by  them 
to  contribute  to  social  progress.  They  fit  him  to  be  a  "  soldier 
of  the  common  good,"  to  help  in  increasing  the  achievement  of 
each  for  all  and  all  for  each,  through  the  improvement  of  the 
environment  of  all  and  the  personal  worth  of  each. 

Specific  Habits. --The  following  are  some  of  the  specific 
habits  which  pupils  will  tend  to  acquire  through  the  study  of 
any  of  the  sciences  under  the  direction  of  a  good  teacher. 
Since  they  are  of  kinds  that  will  be  useful  in  very  many  of 

1  Cf.  Ro\ve,  S.  H.,  Habit  Formation  and  the  Science  of  Teaching.  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  New  York,  1910,  Chap.  XTI,  especially  pp.  243  ff. ;  Colvin,  S.  S., 
The  Learning  Process.  Macmillan,  Xe\v  York,  191  i,  pp.  220  ft". ;  and  Thorndikc, 
E.  L.,  The  Psychology  of  Learning.  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University, 
New  York,  1913,  pp.  415  ft. 


The  Natural  Sciences  449 

the  situations  of  everyday  life  and  in  all  kinds  of  occupations, 
they  are  of  great  general  utility,  and  are  important  to  every 
individual.  While  the  time  and  attention  given  them  should 
not  be  allowed  to  become  disproportionately  great,  no  teacher 
should  allow  himself  wholly  to  neglect  them. 

1.  Careful  observation  of  significant  facts  and  phenomena, 
using  hands,  eyes,  and  ears  before  consulting  books. 

2.  System,    order,    and    neatness   in    the    arrangement    of 
apparatus  and  appliances  for  observational  and  experimental 
work. 

3.  Carefulness  and  skill  in  the  manipulation  of  tools  and 
appliances. 

4.  Careful  measurements,  according  to  correct  methods. 

5.  Accuracy  and  methodical  procedure  in    setting  down, 
arranging,  and  tabulating  data,  and  in  making  calculations. 

6.  Legible  writing,  clear,  neat  and  accurate  drawing,  cor- 
rect spelling  and  punctuation,  correct  grammatical  construc- 
tion, clearness  and  conciseness  in  written  and  spoken  English. 

7.  Good  form  and  effective  motor  attitudes  and  expression 
in  "making  a  recitation." 

In  the  routine  of  studying  a  science  in  school  all  the  various 
kinds  of  acts  implied  by  the  list  just  enumerated  will  be  per- 
formed, either  in  the  right  ways  or  in  wrong  ways.  When- 
ever an  act  or  a  thought  occurs  in  response  to  a  question, 
direction,  suggestion,  or  act  of  the  teacher,  and  it  results  in 
satisfaction,  it  is  likely  to  be  repeated  under  the  same  stimulus 
or  a  similar  one.  Every  repetition  of  such  a  motor  reaction  or 
mental  connection  tends  to  make  it  recur  automatically. 
Hence,  habits  of  some  sort  will  inevitably  be  formed.  Whether 
they  are  to  be  right  habits  or  wrong  habits  will  depend  on  the 
way  in  which  the  teacher  conducts  the  work. 

The  Law  of  Habit  Formation.  —  This  is  a  special  case  of 
the  more  general  law  of  mental  connections  or  association,  and 
is  stated  by  Thorndike  J  as  follows :  "  The  likelihood  that 

1  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  Elements  of  Psychology.  A.  G.  Seiler,  New  York,  1905, 
p.  207. 

2  G 


450  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

any  mental  state  or  act  will  occur  in  response  to  any  situation 
is  in  proportion  to  the  frequency,  recency,  intensity,  and  re- 
sultant satisfaction  of  its  connection  with  that  situation  or 
some  part  of  it,  and  with  the  total  frame  of  mind  in  which  the 
situation  is  felt.'' 

Application  of  the  Law  of  Association  in  Teaching.  —  Hence 
the  teacher  should  see  to  it,  when  any  of  the  things  above 
referred  to  are  done,  that  (i)  the  pupils  clearly  understand  what 
is  the  best  way  and  why  it  is  best,  (2)  that  he  arouses  in  them 
such  ideals  of  good  form,  efficiency,  and  professional  pride,  and 
gets  them  into  such  a  total  frame  of  mind  that  they  shall  be 
anxious  to  do  it  in  the  best  way,  (3)  that  in  the  inevitable  repeti- 
tions of  the  act  they  are  not  allowed  to  lapse  into  wrong  ways, 
but  are  made  to  do  it  in  the  right  way  every  time,  and  (4)  that 
satisfaction  shall  always  be  connected  with  the  right  way  and 
dissatisfaction  with  the  wrong  way  until  the  right  way  becomes 
automatic. 

Scientific  Information.  —  The  content  of  the  sciences  is  made 
up  of  facts,  phenomena  and  processes,  laws  and  principles, 
hypotheses  and  theories,  and  fundamental  generalizations, 
arranged  and  classified  in  accordance  with  their  relations  to 
one  another,  —  particular  under  general,  and  these  in  turn  under 
more  general.  The  relations  in  accordance  with  which  they 
are  classified  have  to  do  with  time,  space,  quality,  —  especially 
with  reference  to  function,  or  use,  quantity,  and  cause,  origin, 
or  development.1 

The  Choice  of  Subject  Matter.  —  There  are  three  conditions 
under  which  any  part  of  the  content  or  subject  matter  of  a  school 
study  may  be  made  permanently  useful. 

1  Economy  of  space  forbids  elaboration  of  this  topic.  To  the  reader  who  has 
pursued  extended  courses  in  one  or  more  of  the  sciences  its  meaning  will  prob- 
ably be  clear,  as  the  classification  and  arrangement  of  the  content  of  most 
science  textbooks  are  made  from  the  logical  rather  than  the  psychological  point 
of  view.  Xo  better  illustrative  examples  of  the  kinds  of  content  and  modes  of 
organization  of  scientific  subject  matter  for  the  purposes  of  the  mature  scholar 
can  be  found  than  the  article  on  "  Science,"  and  the  articles  on  the  special  sciences 
in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 


The  Natural  Sciences  451 

1.  It  must  be  capable  of  being  made  simple  enough  to  be 
clearly  comprehended  by  the  pupil ; 

2.  It  must  be  knowledge  that  will  help  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  some  worthy  purpose ; 

3.  It  must  be  frequently  associated  with  the  situations  in 
which  it  is  likely  to  be  needed,  or  some  part  of  them,  or  some- 
thing like  them,  so  that  it  can  be  recalled  when  the  need  for  it 
occurs. 

Were  these  three  conditions  always  applied  as  criteria  in  the 
selection  and  teaching  of  the  subject  matter,  much  uninteresting 
and  worthless  lumber  that  is  handed  down  from  textbooks  of 
an  earlier  day  would  be  discarded  from  our  lessons.  Actual 
utility  of  this  sort  ought  to  be  the  sole  test  for  the  choice  of  sub- 
ject matter,  since  there  are  such  vast  stores  to  choose  from  that 
no  one  can  possibly  learn  it  all,  even  should  he  so  desire.  To 
defend  subject  matter  that  cannot  stand  these  tests  by  claiming 
that  it  is  a  means  of  mental  discipline  —  of  gaining  power  —  is  to 
ignore  the  findings  of  modern  psychology.  So  far  as  mental 
power  is  dependent  on  information,  it  consists  precisely  in  having 
at  command,  for  immediate  recall  and  use,  information  that  will 
help  to  solve  the  various  problems  of  everyday  life,  intellectual 
and  social  as  well  as  physical,  and  especially  such  problems  as 
have  elements  of  more  than  ordinary  novelty  and  difficulty  in 
them.  To  claim  that  mental  power  results  from  the  mere  ac- 
quiring of  information  that  cannot  be  so  used  is  a  direct  con- 
tradiction of  terms.  On  the  other  hand,  even  though  the  learn- 
ing of  contentless  material  were  granted  disciplinary  value, 
there  is  a  superabundance  of  useful  material  out  of  which  just 
as  good  discipline  can  be  got,  provided  the  methods  by  which 
it  is  imparted  are  right. 

Criteria  for  the  Choice  of  Subject  Matter.  —  In  making  choice 
of  content  we  should  select  that  which  is  comprehensible,  and 
which  has  the  greatest  number  of  useful  elements  in  common 
with  the  present  everyday-life  situations,  interests,  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  pupils,  and  with  the  everyday-life  situations  in  which 


45 2  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

they  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  take  part  when  they  be- 
come adults.  Since  the  law  of  efficient  recall  is  identical  with 
the  law  of  habit  formation,  we  should  connect  this  content  with 
as  many  as  possible  of  these  situations,  and  do  it  as  frequently, 
as  vividly,  and  as  interestingly  as  possible.1  It  is  thus  only  that 
we  can  make  sure  that  the  knowledge  gained  shall  be  of  useful 
sort,  and  that  it  shall  be  usable. 

The  Mastery  of  Content.  —  Much  of  the  content  of  the  sciences 
is  familiar  to  the  active  and  enterprising  boy  or  girl,  but  his 
concepts,  gained  empirically  through  untrained  experience,  are 
vague.  The  meanings  grouped  in  them  are  disconnected  and 
unsystematized.  Such  vague,  indefinite  products  of  experience 
are  called  psychological  concepts.  The  teacher's  problem  is  to 
start  with  what  the  pupil  knows  about  a  fact  or  law,  —  with  his 
psychological  concept,  —  and  help  him  to  work  out  his  ideas, 
to  make  them  clear  and  explicit,  to  apprehend  their  relations, 
and  to  classify  and  arrange  them  accordingly.  He  must  be 
supplied  with  new  meanings  from  various  sources,  and  in  various 
ways,  so  that  the  content  of  his  concepts  may  be  enlarged.  He 
must  be  taught  to  define  his  concepts,  and  connect  them  in 
memory  with  the  names,  symbols,  formulae,  definitions,  or 
statements  that  are  to  stand  for  them.  By  such  a  process  his 
vague  psychological  concept  of  tree,  or  mountain,  or  plain,  or 
the  law  of  the  lever,  or  of  the  process  of  stream  erosion  becomes 
an  explicit,  organized,  logical  concept,  and  is  connected  in 
memory  with  a  word  or  definition  which  serves  to  recall  any  or 
all  of  the  many  clear  and  useful  meanings  that  are  now  grouped 
in  systematic  order  under  it.2 

The  learning  of  facts  and  laws,  the  building  up  of  concepts, 
the  mastery  of  principles,  are  best  carried  on  in  connection  with 
problems  to  the  solution  of  which  the  knowledge  is  necessary  or 
significant.  The  memory  connections  and  associations  thus 

1  See  pp.  449  and  450  ante. 

2  See  Miller,  The   Psychology  of  Thinking.     Macmillan,  New  York,  1910, 
Chaps.  XV  and  XVI. 


The  Natural  Sciences  453 

made  will  be  stronger  just  because  of  this  necessity  or  signifi- 
cance ;  for  if  there  is  a  strong  desire  or  incentive  toward  reach- 
ing the  solution,  the  information  will  be  sought  earnestly,  it 
will  be  connected  vividly  with  the  other  elements  of  the  problem, 
and  the  connection  will  result  in  satisfaction  if  the  knowledge 
proves  to  be  helpful.  Furthermore,  frequency  is  secured  by  the 
repeated  use  of  the  fact  or  principle  in  different  problems. 

If  an  important  principle  is  not  successfully  memorized  in 
this  way  as  an  incident  in  problem  solving,  its  utility  may  at 
least  be  made  so  apparent  that  the  students  will  cheerfully  sub- 
mit to  whatever  formal  drill  may  be  necessary  in  order  deliber- 
ately to  memorize  it  for  further  use. 

It  thus  appears  that  separate  lessons  will  not  often  be  neces- 
sary for  the  mastering  of  content  and  the  mastering  of  method, 
but  that  the  former  is  best  acquired  through  the  problem  lesson, 
wherein  lies  the  only  road  to  a  real  hold  on  the  latter. 

Inspiration  and  Scientific  Ideals.  —  Ideals  constitute  the 
motive  power  for  human  endeavor.  This  is  true  for  the  adoles- 
cent no  less  than  for  the  adult.  Adolescence  is  the  very  time 
when  the  tendency  toward  idealizing  is  strongest.  What  the 
youths  or  maidens  choose  to  do,  how  they  regulate  their  conduct, 
depends,  so  far  as  their  personal  initiative  is  concerned,  on  what 
they  think  worth  while.  Hence,  the  importance  of  recognizing 
the  values  of  scientific  ideals  and  of  making  every  effort  to 
realize  them  in  the  teaching  process  can  hardly  be  overstated. 

Scientific  study  if  carried  G-n  in  the  true  scientific  spirit  com- 
pels sincerity,  out-and-out  intellectual  integrity,  uncompromising 
honest}',  at  every  step.  "  What  are  the  actual  facts  ?  "  "  What 
is  the  truth  about  them  ?  "  These  are  the  sole  ultimate  questions 
of  scientific  study.  To  know  the  truth  and  put  it  into  usable 
form,  is  the  only  aim.  Since  honesty  is  of  the  very  essence  of 
scientific  study,  the  student  of  science  under  good  scientific 
instruction  is  trained  day  by  day  to  habits  of  honesty,  to  the 
habit  of  seeking  the  truth,  and  he  may  therefore  come  to  realize 
the  general  value  in  individual  and  social  life,  of  sincerity, 


454          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

honesty,  and  love  for  knowledge  of  reality  for  its  own  sake. 
He  may  without  special  direction  analyze  out  and  generalize 
these  ideals  from  the  daily  practice  of  these  virtues  in  class- 
room and  laboratory.  Now  although  it  is  fair  to  count  on  some- 
thing in  the  way  of  their  unconscious  acquisition,  yet  great  op- 
portunities for  immediate  motivation  and  the  determination  of 
future  character  will  be  lost,  unless  the  teacher  constantly  holds 
up  the  worthy  ideals  before  the  pupils,  and  occasionally  points 
out  their  utility,  both  for  accomplishing  the  scientific  work  im- 
mediately in  hand,  and  for  regulating  the  conduct  of  a  successful 
life.  In  doing  this  the  situations  chosen  as  examples  of  such 
utility  should  always  be  specific  and  concrete,  not  general  or 
abstract.  Referring  again  to  the  law  of  mental  connections, 
the  teacher  should  understand  that  the  only  way  to  make  sure 
that  the  ideal  of  honesty  in  the  schoolroom  be  recalled  and  used 
in  the  various  situations  outside  is  to  have  the  pupils  associate 
it  with  a  great  variety  of  these  situations  with  "  frequency, 
vividness,  and  resultant  satisfaction,"  and  then  to  generalize  it. 

Prudish  and  abstract  sermonizing  is  harmful.  It  defeats  its 
own  end ;  but  if  the  teacher  loves  the  ideal  and  lives  it  himself,  he 
will  find  multitudes  of  tactful  ways,  in  addition  to  the  powerful 
way  of  example,  for  quietly  influencing  his  pupils  to  adopt  it 
deliberately  as  a  rule  of  life. 

Other  important  ideals  that  may  be  expected  to  accrue  from 
the  study  of  science  by  the  scientific  method  are  :  (i)  achieve- 
ment, (2)  industry,  (3)  "  stick- to-itiveness,"  concentration  of 
attention  on  the  thing  in  hand,  (4)  efficiency,  or  accuracy  com- 
bined with  speed,  (5)  resourcefulness,  (6)  open-mindedness, 
(7)  a  logical,  well-balanced  mind,  (8)  hatred  of  narrowness  and 
prejudice,  (9)  social  service,  and  (10)  the  ability  to  present  ideas 
clearly  and  convincingly. 

Mental  Discipline.1  —  Notwithstanding  the  specific  character 
of  habits  and  intellectual  functions,  the  possibility  of  the  transfer 
or  spread  of  training  into  fields  other  than  those  in  which  it  is 
1  Cf.  Whipplc,  G.  M.,  p.  300  ante. 


Tlie  Natural  Sciences  455 

acquired  is  admitted  by  most  modern  psychologists;  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  extent  to  which  such  transfer  may  spread  de- 
pends very  largely  on  the  kind  of  content  with  which  the  training 
deals,  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  taught.  Our  present  task  is  to 
find  a  principle  that  will  help  the  teacher  of  science  to  convert 
this  possibility  into  fact. 

The  so-called  generalized  habits,  such  as  concentration  of 
attention,  methodical  procedure,  accuracy,  open-mindedness, 
etc.,  are  specific  habits  that  can  be  used  in  a  large  number  of 
different  situations  having  elements  of  likeness  to  the  situations 
involved  in  the  training  in  which  these  habits  have  been  gained, 
and  requiring  responses  of  a  more  or  less  similar  kind. 

Knowledge  of  many  facts  of  physics,  chemistry,  geography, 
botany,  etc.,  enables  one  to  get  on  better  in  a  great  variety  of 
activities  in  which  knowledge  that  is  identical  with  it,  or  like 
it,  in  whole  or  in  part,  is  needed  as  a  basis  for  ideas  in  the  solu- 
tion of  difficulties,  and  the  performance  of  tasks.  It  has  been 
shown  elsewhere  *  that  the  method  by  which  the  scientific  worker 
controls  his  thinking  and  carries  on  his  researches  is  only  a  re- 
finement and  perfection,  through  scientific  training,  of  the 
methods  of  thinking  that  are  used  by  everybody  who  thinks 
effectively.  Thus  it  is  evident  that  scientific  training  has  ele- 
ments of  method  that  are  common  to  all  problematic  situations 
in  every  field  of  activity. 

Applying  the  Principles  of  Transfer.  —  Hence,  in  order  to  get 
general  discipline  out  of  any  particular  study,  the  content 
selected  for  teaching  must  be  that  which  has  the  greatest  number 
of  such  common  elements,  and  these  must  be  mentally  associated 
with  as  many  as  may  be  of  such  activities,  as  frequently,  vividly, 
and  interestingly  as  possible. 

Also  whenever  the  methods  used  in  the  study  are  applied  in 
whole  or  in  part,  with  or  without  modification,  to  the  solution 
of  important  problems  or  the  performance  of  work  important 

1  Cf.  Dewey,  op.  cit.,  Chap.  VT,  and  T \viss,  G.  R.,  The  Principles  of  Science 
Teaching.  Macmillan,  New  York  (in  preparation).  Chap.  IV. 


456  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

to  the  present  or  future  life  of  the  boys  and  girls,  the  teacher 
should  make  the  pupils  think  how  such  methods  apply,  and 
what  modifications,  if  any,  must  be  made  of  them  in  order  that 
they  may  be  most  efficiently  used. 

In  connection  with  forming  habits  of  connecting  school 
knowledge  with  life  problems,  the  advantage  of  habitually  ac- 
quiring such  knowledge  and  of  using  it  for  accomplishing  worthy 
things  must  be  shown,  so  that  an  ideal  of  so  acquiring  and  using 
concepts  and  principles  may  be  built  up  and  emotionalized. 

How  Concepts  of  Method  are  Built  Up. — The  most  important 
phase  of  teaching  with  respect  to  mental  discipline  is  the  for- 
mation of  concepts  of  method.  These  are  built  up  just  as  other 
concepts  are.  Through  the  experience  gained  in  solving  a  large 
number  of  practical  problems,  the  student  becomes  acquainted 
with  certain  modes  of  attack,  methods  of  orderly  procedure, 
ways  of  classifying  data,  and  points  of  view  in  interpreting  data, 
all  of  which  are  commonly  found  to  be  advantageous  in  handling 
such  problems.  He  forms  habits  of  analyzing  problematic 
situations  to  find  out  the  features  of  them  that  are  essential  or 
significant  to  their  solutions.  He  acquires  habits  of  forming 
hypotheses,  reasoning  out  their  implications,  and  testing  these 
implications  one  by  one  by  comparison  with  the  actual  facts 
through  systematic  observation  or  definitely  planned  experi- 
ments. He  learns  processes  of  weighing,  measuring,  testing, 
separating,  of  eliminating  irrelevant  circumstances,  materials,  or 
forces,  of  restricting  inferences  to  wrhat  logically  follows  from 
known  facts,  of  making  card  catalogues,  looking  up  bibliogra- 
phies, and  the  like.  Through  his  experience  with  these  methods 
and  through  appreciation  of  the  value  of  methodical  habits  and 
definitely  planned  procedures,  he  gradually  gets  the  idea  that 
there  is  some  kind  of  methodical  procedure  that  is  best  for 
any  given  thing  that  has  to  be  done,  or  any  given  kind  of  prob- 
lem that  has  to  be  solved.  Sooner  or  later  he  begins  to  observe, 
classify,  and  organize  the  methods  which  he  has  used,  to  find  out 
in  what  kinds  or  classes  of  problems  each  one  of  these  methods 


The  Natural  Sciences  457 

is  applicable.  Thus  he  accumulates  facts  about  methods,  grasps 
the  meanings  of  methods  in  their  relation  to  various  kinds  of 
problematic  situations,  and  learns  what  kinds  of  procedure  are 
applicable  in  various  kinds  of  problems.  Bit  by  bit  he  adds 
these  to  his  notion  of  what  methodical  procedure  is,  what  it  is 
good  for,  and  how  a  well-known  method  of  procedure  must  be 
modified  in  its  details  to  lit  new  situations  that  are  like  old  ones 
in  general  but  different  in  some  of  their  details.  The  extent 
to  which  his  psychological  concept  of  methodical  procedure 
will  be  converted  into  a  well-ordered  and  usable  logical  concept 
will  depend  very  largely  on  the  methods  by  which  he  is  trained, 
and  these  in  turn  will  depend  on  how  broad  and  thorough  is  the 
teacher's  concept  of  method,  and  how  fertile  he  is  in  assisting 
the  students  to  notice  and  classify  methods  as  they  go  along, 
and  how  careful  he  is  to  have  them  notice  situations,  outside 
the  schoolroom,  to  which  these  methods  may  be  fitted  either 
with  or  without  modification.1 

Precepts  for  the  Conduct  of  Transferable  Training.  —  From 
the  principles  just  stated  we  may  derive  some  rules  of  procedure 
for  the  science  teacher  who  wishes  so  to  shape  his  methods  of 
teaching  that  his  pupils  may  get  transferable  discipline  out  of 
their  study  under  his  direction. 

1 .  It  is  impossible  to  teach  the  whole  of  any  science ;  there- 
fore a  most  careful  selection  of  subject  matter  and  method  must 
be  made. 

2.  In  making  the  selection  the  choice  should  fall  on  such 
elements  of  content  and  such  elements  of  method  as  are  useful 
in  many  situations  of  present-day  life,  and  especially  of  the 
sorts  of  life  that  the  pupils  who  are  being  taught  are  likely  to 
live,  now  or  later  on. 

3.  The  pupils  should  be  caused  to  make  association  connec- 
tions between  these  elements  of  content  and  method,  as  de- 
veloped in  classroom  and  laboratory,  and  the  situations  of  life 

1  Cf.  Heck,  W.  H.,  Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values.  John  Lane 
Co.,  New  York,  1911,  Chap.  VI  and  VII.  Also  the  authorities  cited  in  the 
footnote,  p.  448. 


45  8  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

outside  the  schoolroom  wherein  such  elements  have  signifi- 
cant counterparts. 

4.  Careful  attention  should  be  given  to  building  up  general 
concepts  of  method  and  ideals  of  methodical  procedure  for 
the  conscious  purpose  of  rendering  the  discipline  transferable. 

5.  Whenever  possible  both  subject  matter  and  method  should 
be  presented  by  means  of  problems  which  are  of  such  a  nature 
that  the  pupils  desire  to  attack  and  solve  them  for  their  own 
satisfaction  rather  than  as  perfunctory  school  tasks. 

Developing  Powers  of  Interpretation.  —  The  interpretive 
value  of  science  is  closely  related  to  the  disciplinary  value ;  and 
like  this  it  is  secured  in  very  large  measure  by  studying  science 
according  to  the  scientific  method.  The  habits  and  ideals 
growing  out  of  practice  in  organizing  knowledge  into  systems, 
and  practice  in  bringing  particular  cases  and  problematic  situa- 
tions under  the  general  and  special  systems  where  in  accordance 
with  their  relations  they  properly  belong,  are  the  fundamental 
elements  of  interpretive  power.  One  who  is  trained  in  this 
way  will  know  how  and  where  to  look  for  the  facts  in  any  case, 
and  what  kind  of  principles  to  apply  in  dealing  intelligently 
with  them.  He  will  know  whether  the  matter  in  hand  is  a  case 
for  observation  and  experimentation,  or  a  case  to  be  settled  by 
an  appeal  to  authority,  or  whether  it  is  simply  a  matter  that 
goes  back  to  a  definition.  Problems  of  interpretation  are  largely 
problems  of  deduction  from  known  definitions,  principles,  and 
laws ;  or  they  may  be  problems  of  explanation,  —  that  is,  of 
identifying  facts  as  cases  or  consequences  described  by  certain 
general  principles  or  laws. 

Such  acquaintance  with  systems  of  knowledge  also  tends  to 
give  one  broad  points  of  view,  and  a  judicial,  open-minded 
attitude  toward  all  questions.  It  gives  him  an  appreciation  of 
proportion,  —  of  the  relative  importance  of  things,  — and  there- 
fore enables  him  to  gain  such  intellectual  perspectives  that  his 
judgments  on  any  question  are  likely  to  be  good  judgments,  so 
far  as  he  permits  himself  to  judge.  One  so  trained  and  cultured 


The  Natural  Sciences  459 

will  know  also  when  his  judgment  is  likely  to  be  poor,  and  who 
the  experts  are  whose  judgment  of  the  question  is  certain  to  be 
good.  Pie  will  in  such  cases  consult  the  experts  and  accept 
their  conclusions  instead  of  his  own.  For  example,  if  he  were 
a  member  of  a  committee  of  a  chamber  of  commerce  that  was 
to  investigate  the  question  of  a  pure  water  supply  and  a  sewage 
disposal  plant,  and  to  make  recommendations  to  the  city  council, 
he  would  not  trust  his  own  judgment  unless  indeed  he  were  an 
expert  sanitary  engineer  himself.  If  he  were  not  such  an  expert, 
but  had  good  general  powers  of  scientific  judgment,  he  would 
use  his  abilities  in  the  selection  of  an  expert  sanitary  engineer, 
and  would  base  his  recommendations  to  the  council  on  the 
facts  of  the  expert's  report  and  the  inferences  that  might  logically 
be  drawn  from  them. 

THE    TECHNIQUE    OF    INSTRUCTION    IN    THE 
SCIENCES 

CURRENT  METHODS.  —  Three  types  of  method  have- 
been  commonly  used  in  science  instruction  during  the  last  ten 
or  fifteen  years,  known  respectively  as  the  recitation,  the  lecture 
demonstration,  and  the  laboratory  lesson.  These  are  supposed 
to  be  closely  correlated  in  a  carefully  worked  out  plan ;  but 
unfortunately  actual  inspection  of  the  work  carried  on  in  many 
schools  leads  to  the  inference  that  they  are  seldom  so  related. 

As  witnessed  in  a  large  majority  of  the  schools,  the  recitations 
represent  reproductions  seriatim  of  sections  of  the  subject 
matter  as  given  in  the  textbook ;  and  the  laboratory  lessons 
are  discrete  units  or  tasks  to  be  done.  The  latter  too  often 
have  little  or  no  direct  logical  relation  to  the  former,  and  in 
very  many  cases  not  even  a  remote  relation.  Thus  while  the 
current  theory  of  the  three  methods  of  instruction  is  correct, 
the  actual  practice  is  far  too  often  at  variance  with  it. 

The  Problem  as  the  Center  of  Unification.  —  In  the  light  of 
the  principles  at  which  we  have  arrived,  the  obvious  remedy  is 


460  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

to  organize  the  class  work,  the  demonstrations  by  the  teacher, 
and  the  laboratory  observations  and  experiments  about  definite 
well-chosen  problems,  at  least  so  far  as  that  is  feasible.  If 
there  is  no  practice  in  dealing  with  problematic  or  forked-road 
situations,  there  can  be  no  training  in  the  scientific  method,  and 
most  of  the  thinking  that  may  be  done  will  be  accidental.  It 
can  scarcely  be  said  too  often  that  an  effort  to  recall  what  some 
one  else  has  thought  out  and  written  in  a  book  or  said  in  a  lec- 
ture is  not  thinking,  unless  indeed  the  recall  occurs  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  reflection  and  reasoning  from  the  known  to  the  unknown. 
A  problematic  situation,  then,  and  not  a  recitation  or  a  lecture 
demonstration  or  a  laboratory  exercise,  should  be  the  unit  of 
instruction,  excepting  in  the  case  of  formal  review  lessons ;  and 
even  the  latter  are  better  when  thrown  into  problematic  form. 
The  aim  of  the  student  should  be  to  arrive  by  correct  scientific 
thinking  and  experimenting  at  the  solution  of  a  significant  prob- 
lem, rather  than  to  recite  a  lesson  or  to  "  do  a  stunt ''  in  the 
laboratory  for  the  rather  uninteresting  purpose  of  getting  a 
possible  mark  or  escaping  such  disagreeable  consequences  as  may 
be  expected  to  follow  a  failure  to  satisfy  the  teacher's  demands. 

This  difference  in  the  attitude  of  the  pupil  toward  the  unit  of 
instruction  may  seem  to  some  to  be  of  little  consequence  so  long 
as  the  pupils  actually  do  the  required  work ;  but  it  is  really  the 
condition  that  determines  whether  the  work  of  the  instructor 
shall  be  real  scientific  teaching  or  mere  perfunctory  school  keep- 
ing. It  is  the  condition  that  determines  whether  the  pupils 
are  to  get  training  that  shall  make  them  at  home  among  scientific 
ideas  and  scientific  or  practical  problems,  or  are  merely  to  be 
crammed  with  words  and  processes  that  they  cannot  intelligently 
connect  with  things  that  are  meaningful  to  them  in  life. 

THE  CLASS  CONFERENCE.  —  This  term  is  to  be  preferred 
to  the  term  "  recitation."  It  represents  more  nearly  the  spirit 
in  which  the  pupils  and  teacher  should  meet  in  the  classroom, 
and  the  purpose  for  which  they  come  together.  They  should 
meet  not  in  order  to  take  turns  in  trying  to  remember  and  recite 


The  Natural  Sciences  461 

what  they  have  all  conned  from  the  same  textbook,  but  rather 
to  confer  with  one  another  and  with  the  teacher  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  together  their  individual  stocks  of  significant  facts, 
and  criticizing  one  another's  ideas,  with  reference  to  a  problem 
in  which  they  are  interested  and  the  solution  of  which  they 
desire  to  find. 

The  term  "  conference  "  implies  that  the  teacher  should  not 
be  the  only  one  who  asks  questions  nor  the  only  one  who  sets 
forth  facts  and  ideas  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  others.  In  fact, 
some  of  the  best  class  exercises  the  writer  has  witnessed  have 
been  those  in  which  the  pupils  were  fighting  out  a  disputed  ques- 
tion among  themselves,  one  at  a  time  against  the  pack,  while 
the  teacher  stood,  as  it  were,  on  the  side  lines,  and  acted  as  umpire 
and  referee.  Too  often,  the  teacher  monopolizes  the  spotlight 
in  the  center  of  the  stage,  tells  too  much,  and  asks  four  or  five 
inconsequential  questions  when  one  incisive  query  would  suffice. 
One  concise,  well-directed  question  or  stimulating  suggestion 
from  a  skillful  teacher  is  often  sufficient  to  start  a  discussion  in 
which  all  the  required  facts  and  ideas  are  brought  out  by  the 
pupils  themselves. 

The  function  of  the  teacher  is  to  supply,  by  his  own  example, 
inspiration  and  stimulus  for  attentive,  vigorous,  consecutive, 
logical  thinking  and  expression,  and  to  see  that  all  this  activity 
is  carried  on  by  the  pupils  in  an  orderly  and  efficient  manner. 
The  pupils  should  be  stimulated  to  ask  questions  of  one  another 
and  of  the  teacher;  and  when  a  question  is  raised,  it  should,  if 
possible,  be  answered  by  the  pupils  rather  than  by  the  teacher. 
The  things  to  be  told  by  the  teacher  are  those  to  which  the 
pupils  cannot  find  answers  without  too  much  loss  of  time. 
Such  questions  should  be  answered  as  concisely,  as  clearly,  and 
as  artistically  as  possible,  and  usually  in  such  a  way  as  to  stimu- 
late curiosity  and  provoke  further  study  and  inquiry. 

Ordinarily,  altogether  too  little  importance  is  attached  by 
teachers  to  the  function  of  inciting  the  pupils  to  raise  questions 
and  to  answer  questions  that  other  pupils  raise.  Too  often  the 


462  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

classroom  meeting  consists  merely  of  a  succession  of  dialogues 
between  the  teacher  on  one  side  and  various  individual  pupils 
on  the  other  side,  in  which  the  teacher  does  most,  of  the  talking, 
and  in  which  the  remainder  of  the  class  show  little  or  no  interest 
for  the  reason  that  they  know  already  very  approximately  what 
the  substance  of  each  dialogue  is  going  to  be.  The  frequency 
and  logical  significance  of  the  questions  asked  by  pupils  supply 
one  of  the  very  best  measures  of  the  efficiency  of  a  class  conference. 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  LABORATORY.  —  If  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  problem  approach  be  accepted,  then  a  somewhat 
different  function  is  indicated  for  the  laboratory  experiments 
from  that  in  common  use.  With  the  problem  as  the  unit  of 
instruction,  the  pupil  goes  to  the  laboratory  to  make  an  experi- 
mental test  of  an  hypothesis  which  he  has  set  up  in  the  process 
of  thinking  on  a  problem.  He  is  in  the  attitude  not  of  "  doing  a 
stunt/'  as  he  would  say,  nor  yet  of  "  fixing  a  principle  in  mind," 
as  some  of  the  syllabus  makers  have  said.  Rather  is  he  in  the 
attitude  of  an  inquirer  eager  to  find  an  answer  to  a  question, 
and  putting  the  question  up  to  nature  herself.  He  goes  there 
to  get  information  direct  from  nature,  just  as  the  scientist  does 
when  he  cannot  find  it  in  the  works  of  other  scientists.  Since, 
however,  he  is  not  experienced  enough  to  work  independently 
as  the  scientist  does,  the  teacher  is  present  to  be  his  helper,  in- 
spirer,  and  guide. 

In  the  laboratory  as  well  as  in  the  classroom  the  good  teacher 
avoids  too  much  telling,  and  often  answers  one  question  by  ask- 
ing another,  or  by  directing  the  student  to  a  reference  book  or 
map  or  museum  specimen  where  he  can  get  the  required  infor- 
mation for  himself.  He  cites  a  principle  to  apply  oftener  than 
he  tells  or  shows  a  pupil  exactly  what  to  do.  He  makes  every 
individual  "  stand  on  his  own  feet  "  in  observing,  thinking,  and 

o  o 

experimenting,  so  far  as  that  individual  is  capable  of  doing  so. 
By  studying  the  pupils  and  the  work,  he  knows  when  he  should 
help  a  student  and  when  he  should  allow  him  to  blunder  in  order 
to  find  out  how  not  to  blunder  again  in  a  similar  wav.  A  com- 


The  Natural  Sciences  463 

mon  fault  of  teachers  is  to  give  either  too  much  help  or  too  little. 
Those  who  know  their  subjects  well  usually  give  too  much  help, 
and  those  who  have  imperfect  command  of  the  subject  are  likely 
to  go  to  the  other  extreme.  Too  many  teachers  know  so  little 
about  their  subjects  that  they  do  not  find  much  in  them  to  tell. 

The  wise  teacher  will  make  much  of  every  good  idea  or 
piece  of  work  from  the  pupils,  and  will  be  very  sparing  of  fault- 
finding. He  will  insist  that  every  pupil  complete  the  work 
that  is  assigned  to  him  with  as  much  thoroughness  and  excel- 
lence as  he  is  capable  of  reaching  in  a  reasonable  amount  of 
time.  Faulty  or  careless  work  should  not  be  punished  or 
drastically  criticized,  but  rather  the  student  should  be  required 
to  repeat  the  work  and  do  better.  It  is  not  difficult  to  get 
pupils  to  set  up  an  ideal  of  good  work  which  their  own  interest 
compels  them  to  make  all  reasonable  efforts  to  meet. 

Efficient  laboratory  management  demands  that  apparatus 
and  materials  be  so  methodically  cared  for  and  stored  that  the 
pupils  may  have  it  ready  at  hand  at  the  beginning  of  the  period, 
and  a  minimum  of  time  be  comsumed  in  preparing  to  begin 
work. 

When  the  materials  are  of  such  a  nature  that  this  is  practi- 
cable they  should  be  kept,  methodically  arranged,  in  drawers, 
lockers,  or  cases  from  which  the  students  themselves  can  get 
them  quickly,  and  to  which  they  can  return  them  quickly 
when  they  have  finished  their  work.  This  is  possible  even 
with  much  of  the  apparatus  used  in  physics ;  but  in  this  sub- 
ject some  of  the  apparatus  involves  complications  in  setting 
up  and  arranging  that  would  entail  too  much  loss  of  time  if  it 
were  not  conveniently  placed  on  the  table  before  the  beginning 
of  the  period. 

In  the  time-consuming  work  of  caring  for,  repairing,  getting 
out,  and  replacing  apparatus,  the  teacher  should  get  as  much 
help  as  is  practicable  from  students.  They  will  usually  give 
it  willingly  if  they  are  assigned  to  it  in  relays  so  that  no  one 
pupil  has  a  burdensome  amount  to  do. 


464  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

The  following  criteria  will  be  useful  guides  in  the  selection 
of  laboratory  exercises : 

1.  An  exercise  for  the  laboratory  should  provide  the  means 
of   answering   some   question   or   questions    that   constitute 
essential  steps  in  the  solution  of  some  problem  that  is  sig- 
nificant to  the  students. 

2.  It  should  have  some  direct  and  clear  connection  with 
what  immediately  precedes  and  follows  it  in  the  course. 

3.  It  should  be  one  that  compels  careful  observation,  dis- 
crimination, and  reflection,  and  that  affords  some  opportunity 
for  the  development  of  skill  and  self-reliance  in  "  putting 
questions  up  to  nature." 

4.  There  should  not  be  so  many  things  to  observe  or  do  that 
mental  confusion  will  result. 

5.  It  should  be  so  easy  of  manipulation  that  the  poorest  of 
the  qualified  students  can  do  the  work  with  fair  success  and 
reasonable  speed. 

6.  It  must  be  capable  of  being  done  by  the  students  with  a 
respectable  degree  of  accuracy ;  and  such  reasonable  accuracy 
should  be  insisted  on,  else  the  students  will  have  no  faith  in  it 
or  in  what  it  is  intended  to  teach. 

7.  Wherever  practicable  the  parts  of  the  experiments  should 
be  so  arranged  that  the  results  obtained  in  them  will  check  one 
another,  thus  enabling  the  students  to  judge  their  accuracy  by 
the  agreement  among  the  results  themselves  instead  of  by 
comparison  with  the  results  given  in  the  books. 

Number  of  Laboratory  Exercises  per  Year.  —  There  ought 
to  be  a  sufficient  number  of  experiments  so  that  when  sup- 
plemented by  those  made  at  the  demonstration  table  the  main 
outlines  of  the  subject  as  presented  shall  rest  back  on  them  or 
on  principles  that  can  be  shown  to  rest  back  on  experiments 
and  observations  of  a  similar  kind.  The  minimum  amount 
of  laboratory  work  for  each  of  the  sciences  according  to  pre- 
vailing ideals  and  standards  is  such  as  will  require  from  thirty 
to  thirty-five  double  periods  a  year. 

Size  of  Laboratory  Divisions.  —  There  is  a  very  general 
agreement  among  leading  science  teachers  that  for  the  best 


The  Natural  Sciences  465 

work  there  should  not  be  more  than  twenty  pupils  in  a  labora- 
tory division.  Exceptionally  able  teachers  successfully  handle 
as  many  as  thirty,  but  the  latter  number  is  considered  the 
upper  limit,  according  to  accepted  standards  of  administra- 
tion, for  both  recitation  and  laboratory  sections. 

Double  Periods.  —  In  physics  and  in  chemistry  the  double 
laboratory  period  has  come  to  be  considered  as  an  essential 
feature.  Though  perhaps  not  so  necessary,  it  is  also  very 
desirable  in  the  other  science  subjects.  Nearly  as  much 
actual  work  can  be  done  in  a  continuous  period  of  ninety 
minutes  as  in  three  separate  periods  of  forty-five  minutes  each. 
In  many  schools  two  double  periods  are  given  each  week, 
throughout  the  year,  to  laboratory  work,  and  three  single 
periods  to  classroom  work.  In  the  opinion  of  the  writer  this 
is  a  larger  proportion  of  the  time  than  most  teachers  can 
profitably  use  for  laboratory  work,  and  the  practice  results  in 
many  cases  in  neglecting  to  have  principles  and  applications 
thoroughly  threshed  out  in  class  conferences  and  quizzes. 
Until  the  teaching  becomes  much  better  than  it  is  now  usually 
found  to  be,  probably  better  results  would  be  reached  by  hav- 
ing four  single  periods  and  one  double  laboratory  period  per 
week  for  each  science. 

Form  of  Notes.  —  The  notes  made  by  the  student  on  his 
experiments  should  contain  (a)  a  full  and  clear  but  concise 
statement  of  the  problem  that  is  to  be  solved  or  the  question 
that  is  to  be  answered  by  the  experiment,  (b)  a  brief  descrip- 
tion of  the  apparatus  and  materials  used,  (c)  an  explanation  of 
the  methods  of  procedure,  (d)  a  clearly  tabulated  statement  of 
numerical  data  and  results,  (e)  all  the  calculations  that  were 
used  in  obtaining  the  results,  (/)  the  conclusions  that  were 
reached,  (g)  a  brief  discussion  of  such  sources  of  error  as  are 
profitable  for  the  student  to  consider.  The  students  should 
be  required  to  express  themselves  by  drawings  and  graphs 
wherever  such  modes  of  description  are  obviously  of  service, 
but  care  should  be  taken  that  they  do  not  get  the  idea  that 


466  Principles  of  'Secondary  Education 

drawings  and  graphs  are  ends  instead  of  means.  The  teacher 
should  use  good  judgment  as  to  the  amount  of  time  that  a 
student  should  spend  in  drawing.  Much  time  is  often  wasted 
in  useless  embellishment  of  notebooks.  Students  should 
never  be  allowed  to  copy  drawings  from  books.  All  drawing 
should  be  made  directly  from  the  objects  that  are  to  be 
represented ;  and  they  should  show  clearly  the  particular 
features  that  are  significant  in  the  problem.  Ordinarily  a 
sectional  diagram  showing  only  the  significant  features  is 
preferable  to  a  perspective  drawing.  Set  forms  for  notes 
containing  blanks  for  the  student  to  fill  are  often  found  in 
laboratory  manuals  and  direction  sheets.  These  are  ingenious 
devices  for  saving  the  teachers'  and  students'  time ;  but  they 
deprive  the  latter  of  the  training  that  they  ought  to  get  in 
devising  their  own  forms  and  arrangements,  and  in  many 
cases  also  effectively  prevent  them  from  thinking.  They  are 
thus  of  doubtful  value  if  not  positively  pernicious.  The  best 
kind  of  notes  tell  a  straightforward  story  in  the  student's  own 
language  about  what  he  wanted  to  find  out,  how  he  went 
about  it,  the  steps  by  means  of  which  he  reached  his  answer, 
and  what  the  answer  was. 

The  best  sort  of  notebook  is  the  loose-leaf  type,  and  the  best 
paper  for  general  purposes  is  quadrille  ruled,  in  squares  one 
half  centimeter  or  one  fifth  inch  on  a  side.1 

Inspection  of  Notes  by  the  Teacher.  —  All  notes  that 
belong  directly  to  the  laboratory  work  should  be  made  in  the 
laboratory  at  the  time  when  the  experimental  work  is  done ; 
and  the  sheets  on  which  they  are  made  should  not  be  taken 
from  the  laboratory  until  they  have  been  inspected,  checked,  and 
released  by  the  teacher,  who  should  see  that  they  are  reason- 
ably full  and  accurate  in  statement,  reasonably  systematic  in 
arrangement,  and  reasonably  legible  and  presentable  in  form.2 

1  The  most  convenient  cover   known  to  the  writer  is  the  I.  P.  Number  6 
made  by  the  Irving  Pitt  Co.,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

2  Cf.  comments  on  specific  habits  p.  448,  ante. 


The  Natural  Sciences  467 

The  examination  of  notebooks  is  grueling  work  for  the 
teacher,  but  there  is  no  escape  from  it  if  the  pupils  are  to  be 
properly  trained.  The  better  the  teacher  is  at  inspiring  his 
pupils  with  ideals  of  efficiency,  the  less  arduous  his  work  with 
the  notebooks  will  be.  If  each  exercise  is  graded  before  correc- 
tion by  the  student,  and  if  correction  is  required  to  hold  the 
grade,  the  pupils  will  be  more  careful  not  to  make  mistakes. 

LECTURE  DEMONSTRATIONS.  —  The  reader  who  has 
accepted  the  principles  of  science  teaching  that  have  been  set 
forth  in  this  chapter  will  agree  with  the  writer  that  the  lecture 
method  finds  a  very  limited  place  in  the  instruction  of  second- 
ary students.  Occasionally,  however,  it  may  have  an  impor- 
tant function. 

1 .  When  any  of  the  sciences  is  presented  as  a  series  of  prob- 
lems after  the  manner  that  has  been  described,  there  are  gaps 
to  be  filled  and  information  to  be  supplied  in  order  that  the 
subject  may  be  adequately  covered  as  a  whole,  in  its  broader 
outlines,  so  that  unity  and  coherence  of  presentation  may  be 
preserved.     Such  information  may  be  effectively  presented  by 
informal  talks  or  lectures. 

2.  Accounts  of  new  discoveries,  classical  experiments  and 
researches,  scientific  information  of  local  interest,  or  of  interest 
in  connection  with  current  events  may  be  presented  occasion- 
ally by  lecture  and  demonstration  with  preparations,  experi- 
ments, or  lantern  slides,  as  a  scientific  treat  for  purposes  of 
inspiration  and  motivation. 

FIELD  OBSERVATION.  —  In  Germany  and  France,  the 
practice  of  making  class  excursions  for  field  observation  in 
connection  with  school  studies  has  long  been  in  vogue.  That 
we  have  no  more  of  it  in  this  country  than  the  very  little 
we  do  have  is  one  of  the  results  of  our  custom  of  employing 
as  teachers  and  supervisors  persons  who  are  not  specially 
trained  and  educated  for  their  work.  When  this  form  of 
instruction  is  uniformly  advocated  by  experts  in  the  various 
sciences  —  some  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  it  is  indispensable  — 


468  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

and  when  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  generally  done,  we  must 
conclude  either  that  the  teachers  fail  to  know  its  value  or 
that  they  do  not  know  how  to  carry  it  on.  In  fact  most  science 
teachers  freely  admit  its  value,  but  urge  certain  difficulties  as 
reasons  why  they  cannot  do  it.  Let  us  consider  a  few  of  these 
objections,  and  the  answers  to  them. 

1.  Excursions  are  not  favored  by  school  authorities  above 
the   teacher,   or  by  the  parents.     Answer.     By  conducting 
successful  voluntary  excursions  with  pupils  whose  parents  do 
not  object,  the  teachers  can  demonstrate  their  value. 

2.  The  school  program  cannot  be  so  arranged  that  excur- 
sions may  be  carried  on  in  school  hours.     Answer.     Those 
sciences  in  which  outdoor  observation  is  most  essential  can 
often  be  assigned  the  last  or  last  two  periods  in  the  session ; 
so  pupils  can  be  free  from  other  work  for  the  last  periods  and 
may  use  them  and  the  remainder  of  the  afternoon  for  the 
excursion.      In  many  cases,  outdoor  material  of  great  value 
is  to  be  found  near  the  school,  and  can  be  visited  in  a  double 
school  period.     A  roadside  ditch,  a  row  of  shade  trees,  a  vacant 
lot,  a  blacksmith's  or  harness  shop,  all  are  nature  laboratories 
to  him  who  has  eyes  to  see.     If  no  other  way  can  be  found, 
after-school  and  Saturday  excursions  are  feasible  for  a  large 
majority  of  the  pupils ;    and  if  a  number  of  these  are  made 
during  the  year,  even  those  pupils  who  have  "  music  lessons  " 
and  "  home  duties  "  will  probably  be  able  to  attend  a  part  of 
them.     If  it  is  objected  that  attendance  cannot  be  required, 
the  answer  is,  make  them  voluntary,  and  so  significant  and 
interesting  that  the  pupils  will  attend  if  they  possibly  can. 

3.  There  is  nothing  in  this  locality  to  be  seen.     Answer. 
The  writer  has  as  yet  failed  to  find  a  locality  where  there 
was  not  considerable  material  to  see  within  striking  distance 
of  the  school. 

4.  The  best  localities  for  study  are  too  far  away.     Answer. 
In  village  and  rural  schools  this  is  seldom  true ;  and  if  it  is, 
there  are  always  opportunities  near  the  school  for  field  studies 


77/f  Natitral  Sciences  469 

in  biology  and  geography,  and  there  are  always  a  few  local 
industries  of  interest  in  connection  with  physics  or  chemistry. 
These,  although  not  the  best,  may  be  well  worth  visiting.  In 
the  large  cities  distances  and  the  difficulties  of  managing 
transportation  present  real  and  often  great  obstacles ;  but  the 
fact  that  some  teachers  always  overcome  the  difficulties  proves 
that  usually  they  may  be  overcome.  In  such  localities  doubt- 
less the  excursions  must  almost  always  be  voluntary,  and  the 
attendance  of  all  pupils  on  all  the  excursions  cannot  be  secured ; 
but  teachers  who  are  resourceful  enough  to  make  the  excur- 
sions of  real  worth  to  the  students  secure  a  large  enough 
attendance  to  make  the  practice  well  worth  while. 

The  following  suggestions  from  the  experience  of  the  writer 
and  others,  who  have  handled  large  bodies  of  students  in  such 
excursions,  will  prove  to  be  useful. 

(1)  The  maximum  number  of  pupils  that  can  be  conven- 
iently handled  by  one  teacher  is  ordinarily  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five.     Exceptionally  resourceful  teachers  can  handle  a 
larger  number  and  keep  them  at  work,  but  inexperienced 
teachers  would  better  begin  with  groups  of  twenty  or  less. 

(2)  The    teacher    should    first    make    himself    thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  ground  to  be  visited,  with  the  route  and 
means  of  transportation,  and  with  the  special  objects  to  be 
observed  and  studied. 

(3)  The  observations  should  be  directed  to  specific  features 
or  phenomena  that  are  factors  in  some  problem  or  problems 
that  have  been  set  up  for  solution. 

(4)  The  field  lesson  should  be  carefully  outlined  in  a  lesson 
plan  that  has  been  checked  up  by  the  teacher  on  the  ground, 
and  the  plan  should  be  adhered  to  while  the  class  is  in  the  field. 

(5)  Mimeographed  sheets  should  be  provided  beforehand 
containing  questions  to  be  answered  from  observation  and 
reflection.     They  should  also  contain  needed  directions,  hints, 
or  suggestions,  for  making  effective  observations,  for  recording 
results,  and  for  collecting  specimens  for  individual  or  school 


47°  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

cabinets.  It  would  be  better  to  have  these  in  the  hands  of 
the  students  a  day  or  two  before  the  excursion  is  made. 
These  sheets  are  to  perform  the  same  function  for  the  field 
work  that  the  laboratory  manual  performs  for  the  laboratory 
work. 

(6)  The  field  work  should  be  explained  and  the  field  prob- 
lems outlined  in  the  classroom  on  the  day  before  the  excur- 
sion.    The  teacher  should  carefully  refrain  from  answering 
questions  that  the  pupils  can  answer  for  themselves  as  a  result 
of  the  field  study,  but  he  should  make  sure  that  the  students 
understand  exactly  what  they  are  to  look  for  and  to  do, 
exactly  what  rules  of  order  and  discipline  they  are  expected  to 
conform  to,  and  exactly  what  is  the  nature  of  the  problems 
that  they  are  expected  to  solve  in  the  field.     If  they  are  to 
make  collections,  they  should  be  told  exactly  what  kinds  of 
samples  and  specimens  they  are  expected  to  get  and  how  they 
are  to  care  for  them. 

(7)  At  the  next  class  meeting  after  the  excursion  the  prob- 
lems, the  observations,  and  their  bearings  on  the  solution  of 
the  problems  should  be  thoroughly  discussed,  and  the  informa- 
tion and  conclusions  should  be  organized  so  that  when  the 
discussion  has  been  concluded,  some  definite  things  have  been 
learned,  and  some  tentative  or  final  conclusions  of  a  perfectly 
definite  nature  have  been  reached. 

REVIEWS.  —  A  working  knowledge  of  the  content  of  the 
subject  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  ability  which  the  successful 
study  of  any  science  ought  to  impart ;  and  although  it  is 
claimed  that  both  an  understanding  of  the  concepts  and  princi- 
ples of  a  science  and  the  ability  to  recall  them  when  needed 
are  best  acquired  through  solving  significant  problems,  it 
should  be  clearly  understood  that  knowledge  once  acquired  is 
usually  forgotten  in  large  part  unless  occasions  for  its  recall 
occur  at  intervals  and  the  part  that  has  been  wholly  or  partly 
forgotten  is  relearned.  The  purpose  of  the  review,  then,  is  to 
strengthen  the  association  bonds  which  should  be  made  per- 


The  Natural  Sciences  471 

mancnt  but  which  as  yet  are  weak.  Both  pedagogical  experi- 
ence and  the  few  experimental  studies  of  memorizing  and  for- 
getting that  have  been  made  indicate  that  it  is  more  economical 
to  review  or  relearn  frequently  at  first  and  then  at  greater  and 
greater  intervals,  than  it  is  to  try  by  many  repetitions  to  fix 
the  memory  bonds  permanently  during  the  first  learning  period. 
So  far  as  our  present  knowledge  of  learning  and  forgetting 
goes,  it  confirms  the  very  general  opinion  of  successful  teachers 
that  frequent  reviews  are  necessary.  The  time-honored  cus- 
tom of  conducting  carefully  planned  formal  reviews  at  the 
end  of  each  week,  each  month,  and  each  term,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  should  be  adhered  to.  The  intervals  need  not  be 
exactly  those  mentioned,  but  may  preferably  be  adjusted  to 
the  minor  and  major  logical  divisions  of  the  subject  matter. 
Efficiency  requires  that  we  spend  no  time  unnecessarily  on 
that  which  is  most  easily  and  permanently  remembered,  or  on 
formally  reviewing  that  which  is  bound  to  be  recalled  anyway 
at  sufficiently  frequent  intervals  in  consequence  of  being 
needed  as  bases  for  conclusions  to  be  reached  in  later  lessons. 
It  requires  us,  rather,  to  select  carefully  that  which  most  needs 
to  be  relearned  ;  and  to  drill  on  that  at  intervals  of  increasing 
length  until  it  is  correctly  recalled  when  required. 

Hence,  the  review  lesson  has  two  obvious  functions : 
(i)  to  find  out  what  things  have  been  wholly  or  partly  forgotten 
and  need  to  be  relearned ;  and  (2)  to  provide  situations  that 
will  cause  the  students  to  relearn  them.  Topical  recitations, 
written  recitations,  and  review  matches  in  which  sides  are 
chosen  and  total  scores  compared,  are  all  effective  for  organiz- 
ing subject  matter,  or  for  fixing  it  in  mind.1 

The  Topical  Recitation.  —  Pupils  write  on  the  blackboard 
the  headings  and  subheadings  of  a  topical  outline.  Other 
pupils  in  turn  briefly  and  rapidly  explain  the  more  important 
facts  and  relations  that  come  under  the  topics.  Each  is 

1  Cf.  Straycr,  G.  D.,  A  Brief  Course  in  the  Teaching  Process.  Macmillun, 
New  York,  1912,  Chap.  IX. 


472  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

quizzed  by  the  teacher  whenever  the  latter  suspects  that  his 
specific  knowledge  of  the  content  represented  by  the  sub- 
headings is  inadequate.  The  teacher  also  stimulates  the  other 
pupils  to  quiz  him  when  they  desire  fuller  information  as  to 
any  of  the  subtopics.  Occasionally  one  recites  on  a  topic 
without  the  aid  of  a  blackboard  outline.  These  outlines 
should  be  made  by  the  pupils,  never  dictated  by  the  teacher. 
The  habit  of  making  such  outlines  should  be  formed  in  con- 
nection with  summing  up  and  organizing  the  subject  matter 
in  the  class  conferences. 

Written  Reviews.  —  These  are  very  useful  not  only  as 
reviews  but  also  as  furnishing  practice  to  the  pupils  in  reducing 
their  acquired  information  to  writing  on  demand.  Students 
who  have  examinations  to  pass  should  have  much  practice  of 
this  kind.  One  reason  why  so  many  students  "  go  to  pieces  " 
on  examinations  is  that  they  have  not  had  sufficient  practice 
in  taking  written  tests  to  acquire  familiarity  with  that  kind  of 
situation  and  skill  in  that  kind  of  performance.  Questions  and 
numerical  problems  for  such  reviews  should  be  numerous  and 
short,  rather  than  long  and  complicated.  They  should  be  so 
framed  as  to  call  for  a  maximum  of  content  with  a  minimum 
of  writing,  and  should  be  split  up  into  units  representing  facts, 
meanings,  relations,  etc.,  having  values  that  supposedly  are 
approximately  equal.  Thus  each  item  may  receive  a  single 
and  definite  score.  This  makes  grading  easy,  and  also  more 
just.  It  also  makes  it  possible  to  find  out  which  ideas  are  the 
hardest  for  the  pupils  or  are  least  perfectly  known  by  them. 
An  idea,  for  example,  which  is  reproduced  correctly  by  50  per 
cent  of  the  pupils  is  of  median  difficulty  for  the  class ;  and 
one  which  is  reproduced  correctly  by  only  25  per  cent 
of  the  pupils  is  more  difficult  than  the  former,  but  less  difficult 
than  one  that  is  correctly  reproduced  by  only  20  per  cent. 
One  which  is  reproduced  correctly  by  all  of  them  is  so  easy 
(i.e.  has  been  so  well  learned)  that  it  did  not  need  to  be  re- 
viewed. 


The  Natural  Sciences  473 

THE  SCIENCES  AND  THE  CURRICULUM 

COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS.  —  The  high 

schools  grew  out  of  a  popular  demand  for  a  kind  of  secondary 
education  that  would  be  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  all 
classes  than  was  that  given  by  the  academies  and  college 
preparatory  schools  ;  "  but  the  high  schools  gravitated  toward 
the  colleges,  as  the  academies  had  done  before  them."  * 
The  teachers  and  principals  gave  their  best  energies  toward 
the  preparation  for  college  of  the  small  percentage  of  their 
pupils  whose  aim  was  toward  a  higher  education.  Previous 
to  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  every  college 
set  its  entrance  requirements  in  accordance  with  its  own 
notions,  without  reference  to  those  of  any  other  college ;  and 
the  high  schools  tried  to  meet  them  all,  so  that  their  graduates 
might  pass  the  entrance  examinations  of  the  various  colleges 
that  they  wished  to  attend.  The  lack  of  uniformity  in  the 
preparation  required  by  different  students  in  the  same  school, 
and  the  conflict  between  the  needs  of  those  who  were  preparing 
for  college  and  those  who  were  aiming  directly  toward  em- 
ployment in  the  various  occupations,  brought  about  an  intoler- 
able situation  for  the  high  schools.  Greater  uniformity  in  the 
administrative  machinery  that  had  to  do  with  admission  to  the 
colleges,  and  a  simplification  of  the  means  of  adjustment 
became  an  urgent  necessity.  The  movement  toward  uniform- 
ity began  with  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  of  the 
National  Education  Association  in  1893,  gathered  headway 
with  the  reports  of  the  Committee  on  College  Entrance  Re- 
quirements of  the  same  association  in  1896  and  1899,  and 
culminated  in  the  organization  of  the  College  Entrance  Ex- 
amination Board  in  igoo?  The  reports  and  syllabi  published 
by  these  committees,  and  the  bulletins  of  the  College  Entrance 

1  Brown,  Elmer  E.,  The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools.     Longmans,  Green, 
&  Co.,  New  York,  IQOJ,  p.  373. 

2  Cf.  Mann,  C.  R.,  The  Teaching  of  Physics.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  1912, 
Chap.  I. 


474  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Board  of  the  various  colleges,  and  of  certain  state  departments 
of  education,  all  of  which  have  been  based  mainly  on  those 
reports,  have  in  large  measure  shaped  the  curricula  of  the  high 
schools  and  determined  the  character  of  the  teaching. 

As  far  as  science  is  concerned  the  results  have  been  both  good 
and  bad.  Among  the  good  results  are  the  establishment  of  the 
principles  (i)  that  high  school  teachers  should  have  adequate 
collegiate  training  for  their  work,  (2)  that  laboratory  work, 
field  excursions,  and  some  reference  book  work  should  be 
carried  on  in  connection  with  each  of  the  sciences,  (3)  that 
schools  should  be  adequately  equipped  with  laboratories, 
apparatus,  and  libraries  for  such  work,  (4)  that  double  labora- 
tory periods  for  the  laboratory  exercises  should  be  provided 
in  the  time  schedules,  (5)  that  laboratory  notes  should  be  sys- 
tematically entered  in  suitable  books  by  the  students,  and 
(6)  that  the  pupils  should  be  taught  not  merely  to  memorize, 
but  to  think.  Among  the  bad  results  have  been  (i)  the  tend- 
ency to  cast  all  the  instruction  in  one  mold  in  the  attempts 
to  meet  the  specifications  of  syllabi  and  examinations,  (2)  the 
overemphasis  on  the  assimilation  of  subject  matter  and  the 
consequent  undervaluation  of  the  scientific  method  of  study, 
by  means  of  which  the  subject  matter  of  science  is  best  acquired, 
and  most  of  all  (3)  the  discouragement  of  initiative  on  the  part 
of  school  teachers  and  administrators  because  of  the  burden- 
some amounts  of  subject  matter  that  were  called  for  by  these 
authoritative  syllabi.  The  tendency  was  rather  toward 
cramming  the  pupils  with  facts  and  laws  than  toward  putting 
them  in  situations  that  would  necessitate  thinking.  The 
path  for  reform  lies  obviously  in  the  direction  of  changes  in  the 
syllabi  in  consequence  of  which  they  shall  contain  a  minimum 
of  prescription  and  a  maximum  of  suggestion,  especially  as 
to  the  use  of  the  scientific  method  or  problem  approach  in 
teaching,  as  to  the  organization  of  the  subject  matter  about 
suitable  problems  for  observational  and < experimental  study, 
and  as  to  the  rich  variety  of  practical  applications  of  scientific 


The  Natural  Sciences  475 

principles  and  laws  that  may  be  found  in  all  sorts  of  localities. 
The  introduction  of  such  flexible  and  suggestive  syllabi  must 
be  accompanied  also  by  better  training  of  science  teachers 
themselves.  Science  teachers  should  not  know  less  of  their 
special  subjects  than  they  do,  but  they  should  be  given  a 
wider  range  of  scientific  knowledge,  better  training  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  scientific  method,  and  some  special  training  in 
modern  psychology  as  applied  in  the  principles  of  teaching. 

Along  with  more  flexible  syllabi  and  better  training  of 
teachers  for  intelligent  experimentation  on  both  subject  mat- 
ters and  methods  of  teaching  must  come  an  attitude  and'a 
procedure  on  the  part  of  both  college  professors  and  school 
administrators  which  shall  make  science  teachers  feel  free  to 
apply  the  method  of  intentional  variation,  testing,  and  selec- 
tion to  both  subject  matter  and  methods.  In  other  words 
teachers  must  apply  the  scientific  method  to  the  study  of  their 
teaching  problems,  if  science  study  is  to  do  for  their  pupils  what 
scientists  and  psychologists  believe  that  it  can  do  and  ought 
to  do.  We  must  learn  to  teach  science  more  nearly  in  a  scien- 
tific —  that  is,  in  a  psychological  —  way ;  and  this  we  can 
learn  only  by  observation,  experimentation,  and  measurement. 
This  means  that  a  selected  few  of  the  best  trained,  most  enter- 
prising, and  ablest  secondary  science  teachers  must  become 
research  students  in  experimental  pedagogy,  and  that  the 
results  of  their  experiments  must  be  published,  critically 
reviewed,  and  put  into  the  hands  of  all  science  teachers  as 
suggestive  material  for  their  further  guidance. 

THE  SCIENCE  SUB  JECTS.  --  The  subjects  that  are 
now  more  or  less  generally  taught  in  high  schools  are  physical 
geography, botany,  zoology,  physiology,  physics,  and  chemistry. 
Astronomy  and  geology,  which  were  widely  in  vogue  up  to 
about  1880,  are  now  seldom  taught  in  high  schools.  Meteorol- 
ogy, which  was  strongly  recommended  by  the  Committee  of 
Ten  as  an  advanced  elective,  is  almost  never  taught  as  a  sepa- 
rate science,  but  the  most  significant  portion  of  its  content  is 


476  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

pretty  generally  taught  as  a  part  of  physical  geography,  or  in 
connection  with  "  general  science  "  courses,  which  are  being 
introduced  in  some  schools  as  an  experiment.  Agriculture  is 
also  coming  rapidly  to  be  a  part  of  the  curriculum  in  many 
rural,  village,  and  agricultural  high  schools ;  and  even  in 
some  of  the  technical  high  schools  in  large  cities. 

The  Committee  on  College  Entrance  Requirements  recom- 
mended for  high  schools  the  following  courses  in  the  natural 
and  physical  sciences,  to  be  given  in  the  order  named  : 

First  year,  physical  geography;  second  year,  biology  or 
Botany  or  zoology,  or  botany  and  zoology ;  third  year,  physics ; 
fourth  year,  chemistry. 

It  seems  to  be  very  generally  agreed,  on  both  theoretical  and 
practical  grounds,  that  the  general  order  recommended  by  the 
Committee  is  the  best.  In  fact  the  general  order  here  given  is 
usually  followed ;  although  physical  geography  is  frequently 
given  as  a  half-year  course,  either  followed  by  physiology  or 
botany  or  agriculture  or  preceded  by  a  half-year  course  in 
"  elementary  "  or  "  general  "  science.  The  recommendation 
"  that  the  time  allowance  for  each  of  these  courses  be  at  least 
four  periods  a  week  throughout  the  year  "  1  has  also  been 
pretty  generally  followed,  although  the  definition  of  the  unit 
has  since  received  a  modification  giving  it  greater  flexibility. 
A  unit  in  science  is  now  defined  as  the  equivalent  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  sixty-minute  hours  of  classroom  work, 
two  hours  of  laboratory  or  field  work  counting  as  one  hour  of 
class  work.2 

GEOGRAPHY 

GEOGRAPHIC  CONTROLS.  —  The  activities  of  man  in 
carrying  out  his  life  purposes  are  controlled  by  the  distribution 
of  heat  and  moisture.  These  in  turn  are  controlled  by  the 

lProc.  N.  E.  A.,  1899,  p.  651. 

2  Document  48,  December  i,  1910,  College  Entrance  Board.  Substation  84, 
New  York. 


T/ic  Natural  Sciences  477 

movements  of  the  atmosphere,  and  these  again  by  the  form  and 
movements  of  the  earth  and  its  relations  to  the  sun.  Streams, 
lakes,  and  oceans,  mountains,  plains,  plateaus,  valleys,  and 
shore  lines,  all  combine  in  various  ways  to  affect  his  activities 
both  directly  and  through  their  effects  on  the  distribution  of 
plants  and  animals,  of  soils  and  other  mineral  resources. 
All  these  interdependent  forms  and  agencies  constitute  the 
environment  to  which  man  must  adjust  himself,  or  which, 
when  he  can  with  advantage,  he  adjusts  to  himself.  To 
effect  this  adjustment  to  his  environment  he  must  under- 
stand it,  —  he  must  comprehend  it ;  and  herein  lies  the  central 
motive  for  the  study  of  geography.  The  process  of  adjust- 
ment, which  is  life  itself,  gives  rise  to  multitudes  of  problems 
to  be  solved.  Problems  of  vital  utility  and  problems  of  absorb- 
ing intellectual  interest  grow  directly  out  of  the  pupil's  daily 
life,  and  reach  out  to  the  distant  parts  of  the  earth  and  off 
through  millions  of  miles  of  space  to  the  sun. 

BEGIN  WITH  LOCAL  PROBLEMS.  —  To  the  teacher 
who  has  the  point  of  view  that  has  been  set  forth  in  this  chapter 
it  will  be  obvious  that  the  study  of  physical  geography  should 
begin  with  intimate  home  problems.  Perhaps  no  better  one 
to  begin  with  could  be  found  than  that  suggested  by  the  ques- 
•  tion  "  How  do  wre  get  our  drinking  and  wash  water  ?  "  In  the 
country  this  would  lead  at  once  to  wells  and  cisterns  and  the 
conditions  that  maintain  them,  and  thence  to  the  sources  and 
movements  of  ground  water.  This  would  lead  to  problems  of 
farm  and  village  drainage,  the  effect  on  crops,  and  to  other 
related  facts  and  conditions  affecting  or  controlling  farm 
and  village  life.  Directly  connected  with  drainage  problems 
are  the  problems  of  soils.  What  kinds  of  soils  are  found  in 
this  locality?  What  crops  grow  best  in  each  kind?  Why  do 
these  soils  differ?  From  what  were  they  made?  (Rocks  and 
rock-forming  minerals.)  These  questions  lead  to  the  study  of 
the  processes  of  weathering  and  stream  erosion  as  related  to 
rainfall  and  to  the  production  and  transportation  of  rock 


478  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

waste.  The  study  of  neighboring  streams,  which  the  solution 
of  these  problems  necessitates,  raises  other  questions  as  to 
where  the  stream  begins  (springs  and  lakes)  and  where  it  goes 
(river  system,  river  basin,  life  history  of  rivers,  and  the  kinds 
of  control  rivers  exert  on  population  at  their  various  stages  of 
development).  The  study  of  the  drainage  basin  to  which  the 
locality  belongs  also  leads,  either  immediately  or  later,  as  the 
teacher  may  decide,  to  the  study  of  the  larger  physiographic 
region  of  which  it  is  a  part,  and  to  the  life  relations  that  exist 
between  this  part  and  the  whole.  The  study  of  the  local 
rainfall  in  relation  to  water  supply  for  man,  beast,  and  vegeta- 
tion leads  back  to  the  conditions  that  produce  the  precipita- 
tion and  distribution  of  atmospheric  moisture ;  and  this  in 
turn  to  atmospheric  movements,  weather,  climate,  and  the 
relation  of  climate  to  topographic  features.  Thus  each  prob- 
lem suggests  others  which  are  more  or  less  closely  related  to  it, 
or  grow  directly  out  of  it.  As  these  problems  are  solved,  the 
information  accumulated  should  be  organized  and  built  up 
into  small  systems,1  which  in  turn  are  incorporated  into  larger 
outlines  as  the  knowledge  of  the  pupils  grows.  In  the  city  the 
question  of  water  supply  leads  to  a  study  of  the  city  water 
plant,  this  to  the  source  of  supply,  and  this  in  turn  to  the  study 
of  streams  and  their  work.  The  problem  of  city  sewage  dis- 
posal leads  also  to  the  streams  and  suggests  a  question  of 
grave  import  to  every  city.  Is  our  water  supply  polluted 
by  sewage  from  our  own  city  or  elsewhere  ? 

Again,  what  roads  and  railways  bring  in  our  food  and  raw 
materials  and  carry  out  our  manufactured  products?  Why 
were  these  routes  chosen  ?  (Valleys,  ancient  lake  beaches, 
mountain  barriers  and  passes,  road-making  materials,  etc.) 
There  should  be  no  difficulty  in  starting  such  problems  in 
approaching  any  new  topic  whatever.  If  the  teacher  is  not 
inhibited  by  traditions  of  "  logical  order,"  they  will  bristle 
up  in  such  abundance  that  one  will  be  ready  for  every  lesson. 

1  Cf.  p.  452,  ante. 


The  Natural  Sciences  479 

For  the  child,  the  personal  relation  is  the  natural,  psychological 
starting  point  of  interest  in  every  one  of  them ;  *  and  next  to 
this  comes  the  social  relation.2  The  question,  "  Where  does 
our  coal  come  from?  "  leads  not  only,  say  to  the  dissected  Al- 
legheny plateau  and  its  origin  and  history  as  a  physiographic 
feature,  but  also  to  the  questions,  What  kinds  of  people 
are  the  miners  who  get  this  coal  out  of  the  ground  for  us? 
How  do  they  live?  How  do  they  work?  Where  do  they 
come  from?  (Poland,  Hungary,  Sicily,  etc.)  Why  did  they 
emigrate?  So  the  same  problem,  according  to  the  turn  the 
teacher  gives  it,  leads,  through  personal  and  social  relations, 
to  the  study  of  a  distant  part  of  our  own  country  or  even  to 
the  countries  beyond  the  seas. 

TEXTBOOKS.  —  There  are  half  a  dozen  excellent  and 
(at  least  to  an  adult)  attractive  textbooks  on  physical  geog- 
raphy which  differ  but  little  one  from  another  either  in  the 
amount  or  the  choice  of  subject  matter  that  they  present.  It 
matters  little  which  one  the  teacher  uses.  What  really 
matters  is  the  way  in  which  he  uses  it.  The  wrong  way  is  to 
assign  a  lesson  to  be  studied  and  recited  from  the  book.  The 
right  way  is  to  start  a  problem  and  send  the  pupils  to  the  book 
for  information  which,  combined  with  their  own  observations 
and  reflections,  and  the  assistance  given  by  the  teacher,  will 
help  them  to  solve  it.  Textbook  study,  field  and  laboratory 
study,  class  conferences,  all  then  become  means  instead  of 
ends.  For  the  pupil  the  end  is  no  longer  to  make  a  perfunc- 
tory recitation  from  artificial  academic  motives,  but  to  find 
out  something  that  he  wants  to  know,  because  he  can  see  that 
it  has  meaning  and  value  in  connection  with  the  realization 
of  his  own  life  purposes  and  activities  and  with  the  purposes 
and  activities  of  people  whom  he  finds  are  in  some  way  related 
to  him.  The  textbook  then  finds  its  proper  place  as  a  mine 

1  Cf.  Dewcy,  John.,  Interest  and  Effort.  Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1913,  pp. 
23  if. 

-Ibid.,  pp.  84!!. 


480          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  information  and  a  guide  for  organization  and  review. 
"  Pupils,  from  the  start,  must  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
geography  is  a  study  of  the  earth  and  not  of  the  book."  1 

In  connection  with  the  use  of  a  textbook  it  is  important  for 
the  teachers  to  recognize  three  facts :  (i)  Every  one  of  the 
textbooks  has  more  matter  in  it  than  any  high  school  pupil 
can  assimilate  in  a  year ;  hence  selection  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary. (2)  The  teacher  should  make  the  selection,  using  only 
the  materials  that  can  be  made  significant  and  comprehensible 
to  the  pupils  of  his  own  locality.  There  is  more  danger  in 
attempting  to  cover  too  much  ground  than  there  is  of  covering 
too  little.  (3)  There  will  always  be  differences  in  the  sig- 
nificance of  topics  due  to  differences  between  localities ;  and 
therefore  for  any  locality  the  treatment  of  the  text  on  some 
topics  may  not  be  full  enough  to  suit  the  case.  Here  the 
teacher  must  supplement  the  text  from  other  sources,  such  as 
special  monographs  and  government  reports.  On  this  princi- 
ple, the  pupils  of  Colorado  would  study  mountains  in  more 
detail  and  pay  less  attention  to  the  ocean  and  shore  lines  than 
would  pupils  on  the  sea  coast.  The  latter  would  study  moun- 
tains less  in  detail  because  mountains  and  mountainous  con- 
ditions are  farther  removed  from  their  actual  experience  and 
are  therefore  less  significant  to  them.  A  careful  study  of  the 
local  features  is  the  only  means  of  rendering  the  unseen  fea- 
tures intelligible. 

REPORTS  OF  NATIONAL  COMMITTEES,  BOOKS,  AND 
MAGAZINE  ARTICLES.  —  The  young  teachers  of  physical 
and  commercial  geography  will  find  themselves  highly  favored 
with  suggestive  material  for  their  guidance  in  choice  of  sub- 
ject matter  and  special  methods  of  instruction,  for  leading 
geographers  have  written  generously  for  their  guidance. 
Every  teacher  of  this  subject  should  study  carefully  the 
Report  of  the  Conferences  on  Geography  in  the  Report  of  the 

1  Sutherland,  William  J.,  The  Teaching  of  Geography.  Scott,  Foresman  & 
Co.,  Chicago,  1909,  p.  43. 


The  Natural  Sciences  481 

Committee  of  Ten  *  and  the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Col- 
lege Entrance  Requirements  of  the  National  Education  Associ- 
ation,2 the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Geography  of  the 
Department  of  Science  Instruction  of  the  N.  E.  A.,3  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  on  Geography  for  Secondary  Schools  of  the 
Association  of  American  Geographers.4  In  the  last  of  these 
reports,  there  will  be  noted  a  general  progressive  tendency 
away  from  the  specialized  "  physiography  "  that  had  become 
common  in  1909  and  toward  a  humanized  "  general  geography  " 
which  emphasizes  human  adjustments  to  geographic  controls.5 
With  this  movement  the  writer  is  in  heartiest  sympathy. 
Three  magazines,  to  which  every  secondary  geography  teacher 
should  have  frequent  access,  are  replete  with  suggestive  mate- 
rial, on  both  subject  matter  and  method,  School  Science  and 
Mathematics?  The  Journal  of  Geography?  and  The  National 
Geographic  Magazine*  and  no  geography  teacher  can  afford 
not  to  own  and  study  The  International  Geography?  The 
Teaching  of  Geography,  by  William  J.  Sutherland,  although 
intended  primarily  for  grade  teachers,  is  the  most  helpful  guide 
for  secondary  teachers  known  to  the  writer ;  and  is  entirely 
free  from  the  taint  of  "  faculty  "  and  "  formal  discipline  " 
psychology  against  which  the  teacher  must  be  on  his  guard  in 
most  of  the  pedagogical  literature  on  the  subject.  It  contains 
extensive  and  carefully  selected  bibliographies  and  sugges- 
tions for  laboratory  equipment.10 

1  American  Book  Co.,  1894. 

2  Proc.  N.  E.  A.,  1899,  pp.  632  ff.  and  780  (I. 

3  Proc.  N.  E.  A.,  1909,  p.  820. 

4  Journal  of  Geography,  Madison,  Wis.,  Vol.  IX,  Xo.  3,  p.  57  ;  Xo.  9,  p.  244. 
Reports  1,3,  and  4  are  abstracted  in  Whitbcck  and  Martin,  The  High  School 
Course  in   Geography,  Bulletin  No.  382,  University  of  Wisconsin,  an  exceed- 
ingly valuable  pamphlet. 

5  Whitbcck,  R.  II.,  and  Martin,  L.,  op.  cit. 

9  Published  by  Smith  and  Turton,  Xo.  2059  E.  7^d  Place,  Chicago. 

7  Published  at  Madison,  Wis. 

8  Published  by  the  Xat.  Gcog.  Soc.,  Washington,  D.C. 

9  Edited  by  Mill,  R.  H.,  I).  Apple-ton  &  Cxi.,  Xc\v  York,  83.50. 

10  Published  by  Scott,  Foresman  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1909. 


482  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

PHYSIOGRAPHIC  PROCESSES.  —  The  processes  which 
combine  to  produce  the  different  land  forms  are  of  three  general 
kinds. 

1 .  Large  areas  of  the  earth's  crust  slowly  sink  down  in  some 
parts  of  the  earth  and  other  areas  are  arched  or  folded  upward. 

2.  The  crust  in  some  places  becomes  fractured,  and  lava  is 
thrust  up  from  the  heated  interior,  either  locally  as  in  volca- 
noes and  fissure  eruptions,  or  over  large  areas  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Columbia  River  lava  plateau. 

3.  The  elevated  lands  are  weathered  by  the  action  of  the 
atmospheric  gases  and  moisture  combined  with  changes  of 
temperature ;  and  the  water  that  falls  on  them  as  rain  or  snow 
moves  downward  as  streams  or  glaciers,  carrying  away  the 
wasted  rock  and  grinding  down  the  land.     The  condition  of 
the  land  and  the  forms  into  which  it  is  molded  or  carved  are 
the  resultant  of  these  three  kinds  of  processes,  just  as  each  of 
these  processes  is  itself  the  resultant  of  physical  and  chemical 
forces  and  conditions  that  are  operating  in  various  combina- 
tions everywhere  and  at  all  times. 

The  Geographic  Cycle.  —  Because  these  physiographic 
processes  follow  in  sequences  of  cause  and  effect,  there 
results  in  the  case  of  a  plain,  plateau,  or  mountain  system  a 
sequence  of  changes  whereby  valleys  are  carved  into  the 
uplifted  lands  and  are  gradually  deepened  and  widened  until 
ultimately  the  uplands  between  are  worn  away  to  a  very 
even  and  gently  sloping  plain  interrupted  only  by  occasional 
portions  of  the  more  resistant  uplands.  Thus  the  streams 
themselves  and  the  lands  through  which  they  flow  go  through 
sequences  of  changes  which  can  be  predicted  when  the  con- 
ditions are  known,  and  which  are  somewhat  analogous  to  the 
larger  changes  that  go  on  in  the  life  history  of  a  plant 
or  animal.  This  notion  of  a  geographic  cycle  including  the 
life  history  periods  of  youth,  maturity,  and  old  age,  when 
applied  to  river  systems,  lakes,  plains,  mountains,  and  shore 
lines,  is  very  useful  as  a  means  of  organizing  geographical 


The  Natural  Sciences  483 

facts  and  phenomena  into  condensed  and  meaningful  concepts 
that  are  easy  to  remember  because  of  their  obvious  causal 
relations.  These  concepts  in  turn  are  useful  in  connection 
with  the  understanding  of  the  controls  that  these  physio- 
graphic features,  when  combined  with  natural  and  social 
forces,  exert  on  the  life  and  activities  of  the  people  who  live 
near  them. 

Physiographic  Controls.  —  Thus  we  have  the  controls  of 
temperature  and  moisture,  of  rocks  and  soils,  of  the  atmosphere 
and  its  movements,  of  the  mutual  interactions  of  living  things 
(organic  controls),  of  topographic  features  and  barriers,  and 
of  the  forces  and  motives  that  direct  human  conduct  (human 
and  social  controls) .  So  also  we  have  the  responses  of  individ- 
uals and  social  groups  to  these  controls.  Some  of  the  most 
interesting  responses  are  those  wherein  organized  groups  of 
men,  such  as  corporations  and  state  or  national  governments, 
through  their  agents  and  engineers  build  roads  and  railroads, 
irrigate  deserts,  dig  a  Panama  Canal,  dredge  harbors,  dam  and 
bridge  streams,  create  forest  reserves,  build  fires  in  orchards  on 
frosty  nights,  and  do  many  other  things  that  control  nature 
herself  for  human  needs.  All  such  actions  and  reactions 
constitute  the  processes  of  geographic  adjustment  whereby 
men  get  on  with  nature  and  with  one  another.  The  study  of 
all  these  controls  and  adjustments,  their  causes  and  conse- 
quences, involves  the  consideration  of  causes  and  effects. 
Not  merely  what  is  this  like  and  where  is  it  located,  but  how 
came  it  to  be,  and  what  will  be  the  consequences,  are  the  ques- 
tions for  which  the  inquiring  mind  seeks  answers ;  and  the 
boys  and  girls  have  a  right  to  these  answers  so  far  as  they  want 
them,  can  understand  them,  and  can  get  them  mostly  through 
their  own  efforts. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  SELECTION  AND  ORDER.  —  Summing 
up,  then,  we  have  the  controlling  principles  of  method : 
(i)  begin  with  problems  and  begin  at  home;  (2)  connect  the 
far  with  the  near  and  the  unknown  with  the  known  by  human 


484  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

relationships  ;  (3)  use  the  textbook  as  a  help  in  the  accumula- 
tion and  organization  of  facts ;  (4)  use  the  causal  notion  as  a 
link  for  organization  in  the  ordering  of  concepts ;  (5)  trace 
physiographic  features  back  to  physiographic  processes  and 
these  back  to  physical  causes ;  (6)  use  the  cycle  concept  and 
the  concept  of  adjustment  as  unifying  principles. 

FIELD  WORK,  LABORATORY  WORK,  AND  EQUIP- 
MENT. —  The  textbook  has  been  referred  to  as  a  mine  of 
information,  but  its  information  can  become  meaningful  only 
when  it  connects  up  with  knowledge  gained  by  observation 
at  first  hand  in  the  field  and  laboratory.  The  laboratory  work 
is  immensely  important  but  is  less  so  than  the  field  observation. 
It  cannot  be  presumed  that  the  casual  observation  of  out-of- 
door  facts  by  the  pupils  will  be  sufficient  to  make  the  labora- 
tory work  and  the  textbook  study  meaningful. 

As  much  has  been  said  about  field  and  laboratory  methods 
as  our  space  will  allow.1  One  hint  for  each  must  suffice. 
Study  weathering  of  bowlders,  or  of  monuments  in  a  cemetery 
or  of  stones  in  old  houses,  if  no  exposed  rocks  can  be  found. 
Study  erosion  of  exposed  earth  thrown  from  a  building  excava- 
tion or  in  a  railroad  embankment,  if  no  stream  is  within  reach. 
Gullies  showing  in  miniature  nearly  all  the  stages  of  stream 
work  and  valley  development  can  be  found  even  in  cities. 
Make  maps  and  sketches,  describe  processes,  state  causes  for 
variations  in  form,  direction,  slope,  and  width  of  gullies,  and 
for  speed  of  water  in  different  parts.  Find  miniature  alluvial 
fans  and  deltas.  Compare  with  text  descriptions,  maps,  and 
pictures  of  similar  features  on  a  larger  scale  in  other  places. 
In  the  laboratory,  study  minerals  and  rocks,  wall  maps,  large- 
scale  topographic  maps.  Read  and  interpret  maps  and  pic- 
tures ;  infer  life  conditions  ;  and  verify  inferences  from  gazet- 
teers and  reports.  On  topographic  maps  follow  roads  and 
railroads  and  infer  why  they  are  located  as  they  are.  Study 
weather  maps.  Describe  weather  and  make  predictions. 
1  Ante,  pp.  462-470. 


The  Natural  Sciences  485 

Follow  the  storms  across  the  country  in  a  succession  of  weather 
maps  and  compare  observation  with  newspaper  accounts. 
These  are  mere  suggestions  by  way  of  illustration.  The 
teacher  will  find  information  and  hints  as  to  field  and  labora- 
tory problems,  and  as  to  equipment  of  laboratories  in  the 
appendices  of  Davis'  and  Tarr's  Physical  Geographies,  in 
Sutherland,1  in  Whitbeck  and  Martin's  bulletin,2  in  any  of 
the  laboratory  manuals  that  are  put  out  to  accompany  the 
well-known  texts,  and  in  the  references  in  the  bibliography. 
It  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  laboratory  exercise, 
if  it  is  to  be  of  real  educative  value,  is  not  to  be  a  disciplinary 
task,  but  a  step  in  the  solution  of  a  problem.3 

ORDER  OF  TOPICS.  —  The  general  order  of  topics  favored 
by  the  writer  is  as  follows:  i.  Underground  water.  2. 
Streams  and  lakes.  3.  Rocks  and  soils.  4.  The  lands. 
5.  The  atmosphere.  6.  The  earth  as  a  whole.  7.  Review  of 
physical  geography  on  a  regional  basis.  8.  Review  on  the 
basis  of  distribution  of  vegetation  and  animal  life.  9.  Re- 
view on  the  basis  of  human  relationships,  economic,  industrial, 
and  social.  10.  Review  on  the  basis  of  locational  geography.4 
Let  the  pupils  list  the  significant  places  mentioned  in  current 
numbers  of  the  daily  newspaper  and  the  Review  of  Reviews, 
Literary  Digest,  or  Current  Opinion.  Locate  them  accurately 
on  the  wall  maps,  and  drill  by  locating  them  on  outline  seat 
maps  such  as  are  used  in  history  study.  This  kind  of  work 
should  not  be  confined  to  the  final  review,  but  should  be  car- 
ried on  also  in  connection  with  the  other  phases  of  the  sub- 
ject. All  places,  streams,  plains,  mountains,  and  the  like, 
whose  locations  are  important  should  be  located  when  studied 
as  types  or  examples.  For  example,  if  the  "  fall  line  "  that 
marks  the  boundary  between  the  Piedmont  plateau  and  the 
Atlantic  coastal  plain  is  being  studied,  the  principal  manu- 

1  Op.  n/,,  pp.  iQ3  fL,  202  ft.,  211  ft.,  and  Chaps.  XIX,  XX,  and  XXI. 

2  Op.  f//.,  pp.  3(1-41.  3  Cf.  p.  462,  ante. 
4  Cf.  Whitbeck  and  Martin,  op.  cit.,  pp.  27  ff. 


486  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

facturing  cities  that  mark  the  line  should  be  located  in  the 
manner  described. 

The  order  recommended  is  not  necessarily  the  best  for  all 
schools.  Other  orders  may  be  as  good ;  but  the  writer  is 
convinced  that  it  is  a  pedagogical  mistake  to  begin  with 
mathematical  geography.  No  better  way  to  kill  interest 
could  be  found. 

BIOLOGY 

BIOLOGICAL  PROBLEMS.  —  Plants  and  animals  may  be 
either  useful  or  harmful  to  man  and  his  activities.  They 
are  sources  of  manifold  utilities.  Their  life  activities  present 
features  of  dramatic  interest,  for  they  are  often  compelled  to 
engage  in  fierce  competition  in  the  hard  struggle  for  existence, 
-  to  fight  for  their  lives  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  environment. 
Their  activities  bear  many  obvious  analogies  to  those  of  the 
human  body.  Like  the  human  body  a  plant  or  an  animal  is  a 
living,  working  machine,  whose  parts  are  adapted,  both  in 
form  and  structure,  to  perform  certain  functions  in  the  service 
of  the  whole. 

They  thus  present  a  multitude  of  problems  that  are  of 
immediate  and  intense  human  interest,  if  approached  from 
the  side  that  is  suggested  by  such  human  relations  as  have 
been  mentioned.  Biological  study  therefore  affords  inter- 
esting and  absorbing  opportunities  for  acquiring  information 
that  is  useful  to  everybody  in  many  fields  of  thought  and 
work.  Not  only  that,  but  it  enables  the  teacher  who  has 
broad  biological  points  of  view  to  lead  his  pupils  in  directing 
their  thinking  in  the  biological  field,  and  also  their  interpreta- 
tions of  human  activities,  from  these  illuminating  and  sug- 
gestive viewpoints. 

POINTS    OF    VIEW    FROM    BIOLOGICAL    STUDY. 
One  gets  a  certain  point  of  view  when  he  has  come  through 
first-hand  observation  to  know    that  every  living  plant  or 
animal  is  made  up  of  cells  which  are  themselves  living  individ- 


The  Natural  Sciences  487 

uals  like  the  amoeba  or  the  unicellular  plant.  He  has 
gained  a  broader  outlook  when  he  realizes  that  the  necessity  of 
adaptation  to  more  complex  and  difficult  situations  is  accom- 
panied by  division  of  labor,  by  differentiation  of  functions,  so 
that  special  groups  of  cells  are  modified  in  form,  structure,  and 
distribution,  with  the  result  that  each  group  performs  some 
one  of  the  specialized  activities  that  are  necessary  to  the  sur- 
vival of  the  organism  in  its  more  complex  environment.  He 
can  see  farther  still  if  he  gets  the  notion  that  there  is  in  plant 
and  in  animal  life  a  series  of  great  groups  beginning  with 
unicellular  forms  and  continually  increasing  in  complexity  by 
such  divisions  of  labor  and  specializations  of  organs.  If, 
through  observations  and  experiments  which  he  makes  him- 
self, he  learns  of  the  responses  that  plants  make  to  the  stimuli 
of  light,  gravity,  moisture,  soil,  pressure,  or  atmosphere,  to 
other  plants,  and  to  insects  ;  if  he  notes  the  general  process  of 
adjustment  of  which  these  responses  are  the  elementary  fac- 
tors ;  if  he  gets  even  elementary  notions  of  development,  of 
variation,  of  elimination  and  survival,  of  mutations  and  inheri- 
tance as  factors  in  biological  evolution,  he  gains  an  outlook  on 
life  as  a  whole  that  will  make  more  meaningful  everything  that 
he  afterwards  learns  about  living  things.1 

Further  if  the  student  learns  the  meaning  of  biological 
observations,  experiments,  descriptions,  and  interpretations, 
and  perceives  the  relations  of  form  and  structure  to  functions, 
he  will  get  the  experimental  point  of  view  and  perhaps  habits  of 
attacking  his  problems  in  a  methodical  way.  He  may  perhaps 
come  to  prefer  first-hand  knowledge  to  book  knowledge  in  some 
limited  field  at  least.  He  may  not  be  able  to  make  discoveries, 
nor  to  settle  the  mooted  questions  of  biology ;  but  he  will  be 
able  to  find  out  for  himself  some  things  that  are  new  to  him, 
and  to  get  some  clear  notions  as  to  how  biological  questions 

1  In  this  connection  caution  is  necessary.  The  reader  should  stud}'  carefully 
the  discussion  by  Professor  Higelow  as  to  how  far  the  teaching  of  evolution  should 
be  carried  in  secondary  schools.  Lloyd,  V.  K.,  and  Bigelow,  M.  A.,  The  Teach- 
ing of  Biology  in  Secondary  Schools.  Longmans,  New  York,  1004,  pp.  286  IT. 


488  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

should  be  attacked.  Particularly,  he  can  be  taught  the 
meaning  and  use  of  a  control  experiment,1  and  how  to  tell  a 
good  experiment  from  the  bad  one  from  which  no  logical  con- 
clusions can  be  drawn. 

PRINCIPLES  TO  BE  OBSERVED  IN  A  BIOLOGICAL 
COURSE.  —  There  are  certain  biological  and  pedagogical 
principles  that  should  be  prominent  in  the  mind  of  the  teacher 
in  shaping  and  conducting  a  course  in  either  botany  or  zoology 
or  human  biology. 

i.  The  development  of  the  type  concept.  When  we  speak 
of  the  frog  or  the  common  buttercup  (Ranunculus  bulbosus), 
ordinarily,  we  do  not  mean  any  particular  individual,  nor  do 
we  mean  all  the  animals  or  all  the  plants  of  the  species  named. 
Rather  we  mean  any  one  that  is  typical  of  the  whole  species  or 
group  to  which  it  belongs.  A  hundred  individuals  of  a  given 
species  collected  at  random  will  be  alike  in  certain  character- 
istics, but  will  vary  among  themselves  in  many  minor  ways. 
If  then  we  wanted  a  specimen  that  would  stand  as  a  fair  repre- 
sentative or  type  of  the  species,  we  should  pick  one  that  was 
near  the  average.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  a  typical  indi- 
vidual of  a  species.  When  a  biologist  describes  a  species,  he 
describes  what  he  estimates  is  a  typical  individual  of  that 
species.  So  whenever  a  species  is  thought  of,  these  individual 
differences  or  variations  should  be  thought  of  also.  Now  the 
individuals  of  any  species  that  are  near  the  type  resemble 
each  other  more  closely  than  they  resemble  those  of  any  other 
species.  In  the  same  way,  species  which  resemble  each  other 
more  closely  than  they  resemble  other  species  are  grouped  in 
larger  divisions  called  genera.  On  a  like  basis  genera  are 
grouped  into  families,  families  into  orders,  and  so  on.  For 
convenience  in  study  an  individual  of  a  species  may  be  taken 
as  a  type  form  of  a  genus  or  of  a  family.  The  student,  after 
studying  the  type  in  sufficient  detail,  can  then  learn  in  what 

1  That  is,  two  experiments  are  run  side  by  side,  in  which  all  the  conditions 
excepting  the  one  under  investigation  are  as  nearly  as  possible  exactly  alike. 


T/ic  Natural  Sciences  489 

important  respects  the  representatives  of  the  related  genera  or 
families  differ  from  this  type,  and  thus  get  a  relatively  large 
amount  of  information  in  condensed  form.  It  is  obvious  that 
this  type  concept  is  of  immense  importance  to  the  student; 
and  the  teacher  should  be  at  some  pains  to  have  it  grow  up 
naturally  in  connection  with  whatever  samples  of  biological 
material  the  pupils  are  dealing  with.  They  should  get  the 
notion  not  only  of  a  typical  plant  or  animal,  but  of  a  typical 
seed,  leaf,  or  other  organ  of  either  plant  or  animal.1  It  is 
only  by  forming  type  notions  through  the  careful  study  and 
comparison  of  a  relatively  small  number  of  types  that  any- 
thing like  a  general  survey  of  living  forms  can  be  made. 
Biological  teaching  therefore  must  perforce  be  made  through 
comparative  study  of  type  forms. 

2.  The  comparative  principle.  This  brings  us  to  the 
next  principle  of  biological  study,  the  development  through 
habit  formation  of  a  comparative  attitude  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil.  Having  made  himself  acquainted  with  a  grasshopper, 
for  example,  the  pupil  is  led  to  compare  its  near  relatives,  the 
cricket  and  katydid,  with  it,  so  that  he  knows  qualities  of 
structure,  physiology,  habits,  and  life  history  which  they  have 
in  common,  and  also  the  important  ways  in  which  the  other 
two  differ  from  the  first  as  a  type.  Again,  making  a  study  of 
the  crayfish  with  regard  to  structure,  physiological  processes, 
habits,  life  history,  and  so  on,  he  compares  the  lobster  and 
crab  with  it  after  the  same  plan  that  he  pursued  with  the 
grasshopper  and  its  near  relatives.  He  is  then  in  a  position 
to  compare  the  crayfish  as  a  type  of  all  crustaceans  with  the 
grasshopper  as  a  type  of  all  insects,  and  learn  in  what  ways 
the  crustaceans  differ  from  the  insects,  and  why  they  are 
grouped  together  as  arthropods.  He  will  easily  accomplish 
more  and  will  remember  characteristics  better,  as  he  goes 
along,  if  he  uses  the  type  and  comparative  notions  from  the 
first.  In  other  words,  the  crayfish  will  mean  more  to  him 

1  Cf.  Lloyd  and  Higelow,  op.  cil.,  pp.  126  IT. 


4QO  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

while  he  is  studying  it  if  he  has  a  clear  notion  of  the  grass- 
hopper at  the  time,  and  is  working  with  the  comparative 
attitude.  He  will  then  be  looking  for  the  resemblances  and 
differences ;  and  hence  every  characteristic  of  structure, 
function,  behavior,  and  life  history  will  mean  more  to  him 
than  it  would  if  he  had  no  comparisons  in  mind. 

3.  Classification.     The  next  principle  follows  quite  nat- 
urally from  the  second.     By  noting    resemblances   and  dif- 
ferences in  the  process  of  comparing  types,  the  pupil  arrives 
in  a  perfectly  natural  way  at  the  principle  of  classification 
and  gets  a  first-hand  appreciation  of  its  economy  and  value 
as  a  means  of  organizing  and  rendering  intelligible  a  mass 
of  facts  which  otherwise  handled  would  be  chaotic. 

4.  Form  and  structure  as  related  to  function.     In  form 
and  structure,  the  animal  as  a  whole,  and  its  organs  as  working 
parts  of  it,  are  adapted  to  the  activities  in  which  they  engage, 
the  functions  that  they  are  called  upon  to  perform.     No  child 
who  has  tried  to  capture  a  grasshopper  in  the  field  will  have 
the  slightest  difficulty  in  grasping  the  notion  that  one  of 
the  grasshopper's  necessities  is  to  escape  his  enemies,  that 
his  ability  to  hop  quickly,  or  to  fly,  enables  him  to  do  so,  and 
that  his  legs  and  wings  are  admirably  adapted  to  provide 
him  with  this  ability.     Here  then  is  one  of  the  countless  start- 
ing points  for  a  lesson  problem.     What  is  the  mechanism  of 
the  grasshopper's  leg  that  enables  him  to  star  in  the  standing 
broad  jump?     Why  can  he  jump  so  much  farther  in  propor- 
tion to  his  length  than  the  best  boy  on  the  track  team  can 
jump?     When  this  problem  of  the  relation  of  structure  to 
function  has  been  solved,  others  present  themselves  in  pro- 
fusion.    What  is  the  structure  of  the  wings  and  body,  and  the 
arrangement  of  the  muscles  that  enables  them  all  to  cooperate 
so  efficiently  in  balancing  and  flying?     How  are  the  mouth 
parts  adapted  to  eating  ?     How  is  the  food  digested  ?     How 
does  the  insect  breathe?     Has  he  a  nervous  system,  and  if  so 
what  is  it  like  ?     How  is  it  adapted  to  the  functions  that  it  has 


The  Natural  Sciences  491 

to  perform?  These  questions  indicate  clearly  that  the  right 
method  of  approach  is  not  to  study  morphology  or  physiology 
or  ecology  separately,  but  to  study  them  together  by  working 
out  problems  on  a  type.  They  indicate  also  that  in  biology 
as  in  all  the  other  sciences  the  joint  activity  of  the  teacher  and 
pupils  in  field  work,  in  laboratory  work,  and  in  class  con- 
ferences is  unified  in  the  problems. 

5.  Adjustment,  division  of  labor,  and  cooperation.     Life 
involves    a    continuous    process  of    adjustment  to    environ- 
ment.    \i  the  environment  of  the  organism  is  simple,  the  ad- 
justment processes  are  simple,  and  few  specialized  organs  are 
found  to  exist.     If  the  environment  is  complex  or  difficult, 
necessitating  many  adjustments,  more  parts  or  organs  are 
advantageous,  and  the  organism  is  found  to  be  complex.    There 
is  division  of  labor  and  specialization  of  groups  of  cells  adapted 
to  perform  the  various  kinds  of  adjustments  both  among  the 
working  internal  parts  of  the  living  machine  and  in  the  organs 
by  which  it  responds  to  stimuli  from  without.     Thus  we  have 
the  principle  of  adjustment  correlating  with  the  principles  of 
cooperation  and  division  of  labor  on  the  physiological  and  eco- 
logical side,  and  with  the  principle  of  adaptation  and  dif- 
ferentiation of  parts  on  the  morphological  side.     Physiology 
and  ecology  then  present  the  dynamic  phase,  and  morphology 
(including  anatomy,  histology,  and  classification)  represents 
the  static  phase  in  the  study  of  the  same  life  process,  —  ad- 
justment.    Out  of  this  relation  comes  the  fifth  principle  in 
biological  pedagogy:  study  structure  and  function  together, 
as  related  to  adjustment,  in  one  type,  and  compare  with  analo- 
gous adjustments  and  the  structures  and   functions  related 
thereto  in  other  types. 

6.  Continuity   of    life,  —  life   history    and    race    history. 
Each  plant  or  animal  type  has  a  life  history.     From  the  union 
of  two  reproductive  cells  and  the  fission  of  the  new  cell  thus 
formed  until  the  new  individual  dies,  it  goes  through  a  cycle 
of  changes  from  a  simple  to  an  increasingly  complex  condition. 


492  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Some  of  the  individuals  before  they  die  reproduce  their  kind 
and  hand  on  their  progeny  to  continue  the  life  of  the  race 
of  organisms  as  a  whole.  In  the  history  of  the  races  of  plants 
and  animals  some  species  as  species  have  become  extinct  and 
others  have  survived.  Just  as  there  is  a  life  history  for  the 
individual  of  a  species,  so  for  the  race  there  is  a  succession  of 
changes  from  simple  and  undifferentiated  forms  to  complex 
and  highly  specialized  forms.  These  changes  constitute  a 
race  history  which  can  be  more  or  less  clearly  traced  in  the 
successive  relationships  that  the  later  groups  bear  to  the 
earlier. 

7.  The  theory  of  evolution.  Thus  life,  which  is  limited 
in  the  individual,  is  continuous  in  the  race,  and  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  those  qualities  tend  in  the  long  run  to  be  handed 
on  which  have  survival  value  —  that  is,  which  help  to  preserve 
the  lives  of  individuals  so  that  they  can  live  to  reproduce  their 
kind.  So  survival  is  connected  with  advantageous  adjustment 
to  environment ;  and  a  process  of  natural  selection  goes  on. 
By  variation  and  selection  the  race  of  organisms  becomes  ad- 
justed to  varying  conditions ;  and  the  newer  and  more  complex 
forms  result. 

The  young  student  cannot  follow  all  the  evidence  in  favor 
of  organic  evolution,  or  go  very  far  into  the  theories  concern- 
ing its  various  factors,  or  debate  the  questions  which  biological 
specialists  have  not  been  able  to  settle  among  themselves ; 
but  his  attention  can  be  called  to  the  most  obvious  facts  and 
relations  that  point  in  the  direction  of  progress  by  variation 
and  selection  ;  and  he  can  thus  get  a  broad  notion  of  the  evolu- 
tionary process.  The  important  rule  for  the  teacher  is  to  refrain 
from  dogmatizing  or  quoting  authorities  in  place  of  citing  facts, 
either  for  or  against  any  statement  of  theory,  and  to  lead  the 
students  to  maintain  an  open-minded  attitude  and  get  their 
own  point  of  view.1 

1  Read  Professor  Lloyd's  statement,  Lloyd  and  Bigelow,  op.  cit.,  pp.  136  ff., 
and  compare  it  with  Professor  Bigelow's,  p.  286,  previously  referred  to. 


The  Natural  Sciences  493 

GENERAL  METHOD  IN  BIOLOGICAL  STUDY.  —  The 

preceding  principles  furnish  the  basis  for  a  general  method 
in  teaching  biology.  Start  with  problems  that  involve  the 
study  of  a  type  plant  or  animal.  Study  it  as  a  whole,  with 
reference  to  its  general  form  and  structure  as  related  to  the 
work  that  it  has  to  do.  Note  its  differentiation  into  parts 
and  the  work  to  which  each  essential  part  is  adapted.  Make 
comparisons  showing  the  clearest  analogies  in  the  case  of  other 
types,  carrying  the  comparisons  far  enough  to  give  a  general 
idea  of  the  plant  or  animal  as  a  working  machine  or  organism 
with  cooperating  parts. 

Continue  with  a  similar  study  of  the  parts  in  a  somewhat 
more  intensive  way  (but  with  plants,  still  paying  more  at- 
tention to  the  comparison  of  similar  organs  through  a  some- 
what extensive  range  of  forms  than  to  the  intensive  study  of 
the  type  as  a  type). 

After  a  good  general  idea  of  the  working  organs  as  organs 
has  been  gained,  concentrate  on  a  more  intensive  study  of  the 
type,  with  reference  to  its  physiology  and  internal  structure, 
and  its  ecology,  behavior,  life  history,  and  economic  and  human 
relations.  Proceed  with  other  types  in  turn  in  a  similar  way, 
examining  them  with  reference  to  their  morphology  as  related 
to  physiology  and  ecology,  but  with  the  exception  of  two  or 
three  types  make  the  work  progressively  more  extensive  and 
less  intensive  —  that  is,  put  increasing  stress  on  comparison 
of  types,  and  on  economic  and  human  relations  and  gradually 
diminishing  stress  on  detailed  study  of  anatomy  and  physiology. 
Lead  up  to  the  classification  and  evolution  concepts.  In 
studying  the  physiological  processes  compare  these  processes 
not  only  in  the  field  of  plants  or  animals,  but  correlate  in  plants 
and  animals  and  in  human  physiology.  Make  the  largest 
possible  use  of  local  and  living  material  and  of  local  human 
and  economic  relations  that  is  consistent  with  the  broader 
aims  of  the  course. 

SPECIAL  METHODS.  —  The  special  methods  must  always 


494  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

be  worked  out  by  the  individual  teachers  each  for  his  own 
school,  and  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  outline  them  here. 
The  best  way  for  a  beginner  to  acquire  methods  is  to  master 
the  principles  and  notions  of  general  method,  study  and  com- 
pare the  presentations  of  the  various  textbooks  and  laboratory 
guides,  study  and  compare  critically  the  various  syllabi  with 
reference  to  local  conditions,  and  read  the  pedagogical  litera- 
ture that  is  available  on  the  subject.1  Lloyd  and  Bigelow, 
whose  book  should  be  owned  and  studied  by  every  biology 
teacher,  discuss  laboratory  methods  and  equipment  as  well 
as  general  and  special  method  in  botany,  zoology,  and  human 
physiology  with  sufficient  detail  to  meet  the  needs  even  of 
inexperienced  teachers. 

CORRELATION  OF  BOTANY,  ZOOLOGY,  AND 
PHYSIOLOGY.  —  For  a  course  of  one  year  in  biological  study 
there  are  three  plans  from  which  to  choose  :  i .  A  half  year 
of  botany,  followed  by  a  half  year  of  zoology,  closing  with 
a  brief  survey  of  human  physiology;2  2.  A  year  of  botany 
only;  3.  A  year  of  zoology  only.  From  the  standpoint  of 
a  well-balanced  curriculum  for  the  purposes  of  general  edu- 
cation the  writer  agrees  with  a  number  of  leading  biologists 
in  favoring  the  first  plan.  In  case  the  second  is  adopted  he  be- 
lieves that  sufficient  botanical  details  should  be  excluded  from 
the  course  to  give  time  for  frequent  comparisons  of  animals  with 

1  Especially  Lloyd  and  Bigelow,  op.  cit.;   the  current  and  many  of  the  back 
numbers  of  School  Science  and  Mathematics.  The  Report  of  the  Botanical  Society 
of  America  on  Botany  in  Secondary  Schools,  in  School  Review,  November,  1908 
(Vol.  16,  p.  594).     Ganong,  W.  F.,  The  Teaching  Botanist,  Macmillan,  1910. 
The  Report  of   the   American   Society  of  Zoologists   on  Zoology  for  Secondary 
Schools,   College  Entrance  Board,  Substation  84,   New  York,  Document  48; 
and  the  Definitions  of  Units  in  Botany  and  Zoology  in  the  Reports  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Accredited  Schools  of  the  North  Central  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Secondary  Schools,  which  may  be  obtained  from  the  Secretary,  Principal  J.  E. 
Armstrong,  Englewood  High  School,  Chicago,  price  twenty-five  cents. 

2  For  excellent  outlines  of  such  a  course,  worked  out  in  a  single  textbook,  see 
Bailey,  L.  H.,  and  Coleman,  W.  M.,  First  Course  in  Biology,  Macmillan,  New 
York,  1908  ;  Hunter,  G.  W.,  Elements  of  Biology,  American  Book  Co.,  1907  ;  and 
Bigelow,  M.  A.,  and  A.  N.,  Introduction  to  Biology,  Macmillan,  New  York,  1913. 


The  Natural  Sciences  495 

plants  to  make  their  common  physiological  resemblances 
and  differences  clear ;  and  in  case  the  third  plan  is  adopted 
he  believes  that  a  similar  comparative  use  of  botanical  material 
should  be  made ;  and  that  in  any  of  the  three  plans  the 
broader  correlations  of  plant,  animal,  and  human  physiology 
should  be  made  at  every  point  where  they  will  be  clear  and 
illuminating. 

PHYSICS 

COMMON-SENSE  NOTIONS,  AND  PHYSICAL  PRIN- 
CIPLES. —  In  his  Science  of  Mechanics  *  Mach  has  shown  that 
the  early  discoveries  of  mechanical  laws  and  principles  grew 
out  of  thinking  that  was  aroused  by  problematic  situations 
in  which  there  seemed  to  be  some  incongruity  between  ob- 
served physical  facts  and  the  intuitive  or  common-sense 
notions  about  them  which  crystallize,  so  to  speak,  out  of  the 
manifold  experiences  of  the  individual  and  the  race  in  dealing 
with  the  materials  and  tools  of  the  industries.  Physical 
principles,  such  as  that  of  the  lever  and  that  of  flotation  in 
mechanics,  that  of  the  distribution  of  heat  by  convection 
currents,  that  of  the  equality  of  the  angles  of  incidence  and 
reflection  for  light,  or  Ohm's  law  of  flow  for  electric  currents, 
are  merely  concise  and  convenient  ways  of  describing  events 
that  persistently  recur  under  certain  circumstances.  As 
Mach  points  out,2  such  a  "law"  or  "principle"  is  an  econom- 
ical device  of  thought,  which  enables  us  to  keep  in  mind  by 
means  of  a  single  statement  or  formula  a  multitude  of  single 
occurrences  that  are  alike  in  certain  essential  qualities  or 
relations,  although  widely  separated  perhaps  in  both  time 
and  space.  The  principle  states  the  relation  that  these  single 

1  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  1907,  loc.  cil.,  pp.  1-7,  also  77-85. 
(The  word  "intuitive  "  is  preferable  to  the  word  "instinctive"  used  in  the  Eng- 
lish translation  of  Mach's  book.  Instinctive  is  probably  intended  only  in  a  figura- 
tive sense;  but  it  is  psychologically  misleading  in  the  connection  used.  An  in- 
stinctive reaction  is  one  that  is  unlearned;  an  intuitive  one  is  learned,  but 
untaught.  This  evidently  is  what  Mach  meant.) 

•Op.  cit.,  pp.  481  If. 


496  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

occurrences  have  in  common.  Those  who  have  discovered 
such  generalizations,  as  Mach  shows,1  have  often  used  their 
intuitive  notions,  derived  from  familiar  experiences,  as  guides 
in  their  thinking.  So  it  is  with  us  all,  with  children  no  less 
than  with  adults.  New  experiences  which  do  not  conflict 
with  our  intuitive  knowledge,  or  common  sense  as  we  are  wont 
to  call  it,  are  taken  as  matters  of  course,  and  do  not  arouse 
any  feeling  of  doubt  or  incongruity.  Understanding  of  prin- 
ciples grows  by  checking  up  new  particular  cases  that  are 
found  to  come  under  them,  with  the  aid  of  these  intuitions  as 
guides.  By  this  trying-out  process  both  the  principles  and 
the  guiding  intuitions  are  clarified  and  made  more  precise 
and  meaningful.  One  gets  ultimately  "  a  comprehensive, 
compact,  consistent,  and  facile  conception  of  the  facts."  2 

Intuitions  and  the  Facts  of  Everyday  Life  as  Starting 
Points.  —  It  is  very  important  that  the  teacher,  at 
the  outset,  recognize  this  function  of  intuitions  and  also 
that  he  keep  in  mind  the  close  interplay  of  science 
and  the  industries,  and  so  start  his  teaching  of  physical 
principles  with  problematic  concrete  situations  in  which  the 
pupil  senses  a  difficulty,  or  an  incongruity  with  his  intuitive 
experiential  knowledge.  Such  a  situation  —  one  that  in- 
volves a  strange  or  novel  element  among  the  familiar  occur- 
rences of  daily  observation,  and  therefore  piques  the  pupil's 
curiosity  and  arouses  his  interest — is  the  only  kind  of  situa- 
tion in  which  he  will  think.  There  is  a  vast  difference,  from 
the  psychological  and  educational  standpoint,  between  think- 
ing and  merely  trying  to  recall  dogmatic  statements  from  the 
textbook.  In  the  former  case  the  pupil  is  acquiring  meanings, 
learning  to  reflect,  and  learning  to  reason ;  while  in  the  latter 
he  is  forming  short-circuit  memory  bonds  that  cannot,  ex- 

1  Op.  cit.,  pp.  26  ff.     Every  teacher  of  physics  should  read  the  entire  chapter, 
especially  Section  V.     The  chapter,  for  the  most  part,  is  not  easy  reading,  but  it 
affords  an  outlook  that  is  well  worth  the  trouble  required  to  gain  it. 

2  Mach,  op.  ciL,  p.  5. 


The  Natural  Sciences  497 

cepting  by  mere  chance,  function  in  real  situations  outside 
the  schoolroom. 

Such  short-circuit  memory  connections  furnish  one  explana- 
tion for  the  condition  so  often  described  by  teachers  when 
they  complain  that  pupils  "  know  the  principle,  but  cannot 
apply  it."  In  such  cases  it  is  obvious  that  they  do  not 
know  the  principle.  The  only  association  bond  existing  in 
their  brain  cells  is  the  bond  between  the  situation  of  being 
asked  the  question,  "  State  (say)  Pascal's  law  of  fluid  pres- 
sure "  on  the  stimulus  side,  and  recalling  the  sequence  of 
words,  "  The  pressure  in  a  fluid  in  a  closed  vessel  is  trans- 
mitted .  .  .  etc.,"  on  the  response  side.  The  necessary  asso- 
ciation bonds  have  not  been  formed  between  the  idea  of 
undiminished  transmission  of  fluid  pressure,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  lot  of  concrete  cases,  on  the  other  hand. 

Such  bonds  can  be  formed  in  most  cases  only  by  a  consid- 
erable number  of  concrete  mental  and  motor  experiences 
with  fluids  whose  behavior  under  transmitted  pressure  has 
been  intelligently  and  thoughtfully  observed  and  measured  in 
some  way.  Pupils  cannot  be  railroaded  into  a  knowledge  of 
physical  principles.  Real  knowledge  of  a  law  or  principle,  - 
that  is,  facility  or  skill  in  using  it,  can  be  gained  only  by 
practice  in  dealing  with  problematic  situations  in  which  it 
is  involved.  Thus,  if  the  pupil  has  gained  such  experience  by 
measuring,  with  a  pressure  gauge,  the  pressure  at  several  water 
taps  which  are  located  on  the  same  floor  of  a  building  and 
which  come  from  pipes  that  have  various  diameters  and  that 
turn  and  twist  in  various  directions,  and  if  he  has  made  similar 
measurements  on  one  or  two  other  floors,  he  will  have  little 
difficulty  in  grasping  the  idea  and  connecting  it  in  the  class 
conferences  with  similar  cases  elsewhere.  By  such  a  process 
a  clear  and  meaningful  concept  of  fluid  pressure  can  be  built 
up  in  his  mind. 

Words,  definitions,  statements  of  laws  and  principles,  alge- 
braic formulae,  are  mere  symbols.  They  are  indispensable  in 


498  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

science  for  economy  in  thought ;  but  they  are  almost  abso- 
lutely useless  to  any  individual  unless  he  himself  has  a  clear 
and  precise  notion  or  concept  of  the  things  or  relations  for 
which  each  symbol  stands.  A  thorough  and  intelligent  appre- 
ciation of  this  fundamental  psychological  principle  is  abso- 
lutely essential  for  real  success  in  teaching  anything ;  but  it  is 
more  likely  to  be  fatally  overlooked  by  teachers  of  physics 
and  chemistry  than  by  teachers  of  some  other  subjects,  be- 
cause of  the  highly  symbolic,  condensed,  and  technical  lan- 
guage in  which  these  sciences  are  set  forth  in  the  treatises. 
The  very  excellence  of  logical  organization  to  which  these  fas- 
cinating sciences  have  attained  is  on  the  one  hand  a  source  of 
the  gravest  danger  to  all  attempts  to  teach  them  to  young  peo- 
ple, and  on  the  other  hand,  if  rightly  used,  a  means  of  the  high- 
est value  in  forming  habits  of  logical  thinking. 

Some  Intuitive  Notions  Described.  --  What  are  the 
common-sense  notions  or  intuitive  judgments  that  con- 
stitute so  important  a  part  of  the  mental  raw  materials  with 
which  the  physics  teacher  must  begin  ?  We  know  no  logical 
order  in  which  to  name  them ;  and,  as  Mach  shows,1  it  is 
useless  to  try  to  ascribe  either  priority  or  higher  authority 
to  one  of  them  in  preference  to  another ;  for  they  are  all  as 
it  wereswz  generis,  each  being  derived  from  a  fund  of  experiences 
which  is  as  worthy  of  confidence  as  any  other.  Hence  the 
order  in  which  they  are  here  set  down  is  not  significant. 
Neither  is  it  claimed  that  the  enumeration  is  complete.  It  is 
intended  only  to  be  suggestive. 

i.  The  continuity  of  nature,  the  notion  that  things  that 
have  always  been  so  will  always  be  so  under  similar  condi- 
tions.2 In  the  teaching,  the  examination  of  conditions  is 
the  process  on  which  a  great  part  of  any  given  problem 
turns. 

1  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  80  ff. 

2  Cf.  Mann,  C.  R.,  and  Twiss,  G.  R.,  Physics.     Scott,  Foresman  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1910,  p.  17. 


The  Natural  Sciences  499 

2.  The  causal  notion,1  the   intuitive  habit  of   connecting 
in  thought  two  things  that  always  go  together,  either  in  se- 
quence or  simultaneously,  and  of  looking  for  a  similar  relation 
which  intelligibly  connects  a  strange  thing  or  event  with  things 
or  events  that  are  familiarly  known.     This  intuitive  tendency 
finds  an  outlet  in  the  ubiquitous  question  of  the  young  child, 
"  Mother,  what  makes  it  do  that?  "     The  teacher  who  can 
revive  and  foster  this  na'ive  desire  of  the  children  to  know  the 
why  of  things  —  a  desire  which  is  universally  crushed  by  our 
conventional  social  and  educational  procedure  in  dealing  with 
it  —  may  know  by  this  token  that  his  methods  in  so  far  forth 
are  right  methods. 

3.  The  notion  of  balancing,  and  of  a  connection  of  balancing 
with  symmetry  about  the  point  or  line  of  support.     Here  is 
a  guiding  intuition  for  all  problems  about  center  of  gravity, 
equilibrium,  stability,  levers,  and  so  on.     Every  child  who  has 
played  with  a  seesaw,  played  store  with  toy  scales,  balanced 
his  body,  "  trimmed  "  a  boat,  carried  packages  in  two  hands, 
and  the  like,  knows  something  about  these  problems  and  will 
be  keen  to  know  more,  if  his  interest  is  not  stifled  by  making 
him  begin  with  reciting  a  book  lesson  about  gravity  or  the  law 
of  the  lever. 

4.  The  notion   of  force,   derived   from   the   sensations  of 
muscular  exertion  in  pushing    and    pulling   things  with  the 
hands,  striking  balls  with  bats,  chopping  with  hatchets,  driving 
nails  and  pegs  with  hammers  and  stones,  supporting  weights, 
and  the  like.     This  notion  again  is  usually  clear  enough  in 
the  pupil's  mind  if  instead  of  being  asked  to  define  force  he  is 
asked  how  it  can  be  measured. 

5.  The  notion  of  work,  derived  from  lifting  weights,  push- 
ing and  dragging  things  against  resistance,  and  so  on.     This 
notion,  again,  is  made  clear  not  by  defining  it  metaphysically  ; 

1  For  a  complete  but  simple  discussion  of  the  logical  and  scientific  uses  of  this 
notion,  see  Jones,  A.  I,.,  Logic,  Inductive  and  Deductive.  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
New  York,  1909,  pp.  79-109.  Cf.  also  Mach,  op.  cit.,  pp.  483-485  and  579. 


500  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

but  by  showing  in  many  cases  that  work  can  be  measured 
by  the  .  numerical  product,  pounds  force  multiplied  by 
distance.1 

6.  The  notion  of  inertia,  derived  from  running  and  dodg- 
ing, from   starting  and   stopping  massive   bodies,  riding  in 
vehicles. 

7.  The  correlative  idea  of  mass,  expressed  in  the  common 
saying  that  "  large  bodies  move  slowly."     This  idea  is  usually 
confused  with  that  of  weight ;  and  some  care  and  a  good  deal 
of  time  and  regulated  experience  in  making  the  proper  dis- 
tinctions are  needed  to  clear  it  up.     Much  of  the  difficulty 
here  will  be  avoided  if  the  teacher  always  makes  the  distinction 
correctly  in  his  own  speech  and  does  not  insist  on  having  the 
pupils  understand  and  make  it  before  they  have  had  sufficient 
experience  with  the  phenomena  in  which  mass  and  weight  can 
be  differentiated. 

8.  The  impossibility  of  a  perpetual  motion  against  a  resist- 
ance, derived  from  the  continuous  exertion  required  to  keep 
bodies  moving  and  their  tendency  to  stop  when  the  urging 
force  is  relaxed,   and  from   observation   of   swinging  bodies 
which  never  rise  to  higher  levels  than  those  from  which  they 
started.     This  intuition  is  commonly  expressed  in  the  saying 
that  "water  never  rises  higher  than  its  source,"  or  that,  "you 
cannot  get  more  work  out  of  a  machine  than  you  put  into  it." 
The  interest  of  many  boys  in  suggested  conflicts  with  this 
intuitive  notion  is  striking.     They  will  often  think  hard  and 
argue  keenly  with  one  another  in  an  endeavor  to   find   the 
fallacies  that  lurk  in  such  perpetual-motion  propositions. 

The    Questions    of    Tyndall's    Boys.  —  In    a     lecture    on 

1  Cf.  Mann,  C.  R.,  The  Teaching  of  Physics.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New 
York,  1912,  pp.  225-233.  Xo  teacher  of  physics,  experienced  or  otherwise, 
can  afford  not  to  read  this  book,  and  reflect  on  the  vital  questions  respecting 
physics  teaching  that  are  discussed  therein.  It  has  the  almost  unique  advantage 
among  books  on  science  teaching  of  being  written  from  the  standpoint  of  modern 
psychology  and  is  free  from  the  taint  of  the  discredited  faculty  and  forma] 
discipline  psychology. 


The  Natural  Sciences  501 

Physics  as  a  means  of  Education 1  Tyndall  gives  a  few" 
questions  selected  at  random  from  among  those  asked  by 
his  boys,  students  at  an  agricultural  school  in  Hampshire. 
These  questions  were  asked  and  discussed  by  the  boys  and 
their  teachers  at  the  meetings  of  a  scientiiic  club  that  they 
had  formed.  There  were  all  sorts  of  questions,  most  of  them 
asking  for  the  causes  of  things.  They  exhibit  the  spirit  of 
wonder  that  is  so  important  for  the  science  teacher  to  foster ; 
and  a  few  of  them  are  just  such  problems  as  best  serve  for 
starting  points  from  which  to  arrive  at  important  physical 
principles. 

What  are  the  duties  of  the  Astronomer  Royal?  What  is 
frost  ?  Why  are  thunder  and  lightning  more  frequent  in  sum- 
mer than  in  winter?  What  occasions  falling  stars?  What 
is  the  cause  of  the  sensation  of  "  pins  and  needles  "?  What 
is  the  cause  of  waterspouts?  What  is  the  cause  of  hiccup? 
If  a  towel  be  wetted  with  water,  why  does  the  wet  portion  be- 
come darker  than  before?  What  is  meant  by  Lancashire 
witches?  Does  the  dew  rise  or  fall?  What  is  the  principle 
of  the  hydraulic  press?  Is  there  more  oxygen  in  the  air 
in  summer  than  in  winter?  What  are  those  rings  that  we  see 
around  the  gas  and  the  sun?  What  is  thunder?  How  is  it 
(sic)  that  a  black  hat  can  be  moved  by  forming  around  it 
a  magnetic  circle,  while  a  white  hat  remains  stationary?2 
What  is  the  cause  of  perspiration  ?  Is  it  true  that  men  were 

1  In  Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life,  edited  by  E.  L.  Youmans,  Appleton, 
New  York,  1875,  pp.  59-85.  Science  teachers  who  have  not  read  this  eloquent 
and  inspiring  presentation  of  the  culture  value  of  science,  by  probably  the  most 
gifted  teacher  of  physics  that  ever  lived,  should  do  so.  The  same  volume  con- 
tains a  lecture  by  Liebig  on  "The  Development  of  Scientific  Ideas, "  which  shows 
the  close  natural  connection  between  science  and  the  industries. 

-  This  might  have  been  some  conjuring  trick  or  a  mere  superstitious  tradition  ; 
but  it  would  seem  unlikely  that  such  a  teacher  as  Tyndall  would  neglect  the 
opportunity  to  incite  the  boys  to  find  out  in  this  case  the  relative  merits  of 
credulity  and  knowledge  by  putting  this  question  to  the  test  of  experiment. 
Cf.  Hall,  G.  Stanley,  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  p.  157,  wherein  the  author  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  neglected  field  of  scientific  toys  and  conjuring  tricks  as  sources  of 
problems  possessing  strong  motivating  power  for  study  of  the  principles  of 
physics. 


502  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

once  monkeys  ?  What  is  the  difference  between  the  soul  and 
the  mind  ?  x  Is  it  contrary  to  the  rules  of  vegetarianism  to  eat 
eggs? 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  that  were  asked ;  but 
they  suggest  countless  nodes  of  interest  from  which  problems 
may  be  made  to  bud  out  at  the  command  of  a  sympathetic  and 
resourceful  teacher.  Tyndall  then  selects  the  questions  of 
the  wetted  towel,  and  the  deposition  of  dew,  and  in  his  truly 
wonderful  way  shows  how  they  can  be  explained  by  means  of 
a  few  simple  physical  principles.  The  following  quotation  will 
suggest  the  way  in  which  such  principles  were  led  up  to  and 
enforced  through  some  problems  that  enabled  his  boys  to 
apply  their  knowledge  of  arithmetic  and  geometry,  not  to 
"  recite  "  for  the  teacher,  but  to  find  out  something  that  they 
were  keen  to  know.  The  class  he  describes  was  supposed  to 
be  studying  geometry ;  but  it  is  evident  that  no  water-tight 
bulkheads  existed  between  mathematics  and  science  for  such 
a  teacher  as  Tyndall.  The  selection  also  exemplifies  that 
infectious  enthusiasm  that  is  indispensable  to  successful  science 
teaching. 

"It  was  often  my  custom  to  give  the  boys  their  choice  of 
pursuing  their  propositions  in  the  book,  or  of  trying  their 
strength  on  others  not  to  be  found  there.  Never  in  a  single 
instance  have  I  known  the  book  to  be  chosen.  .  .  . 

"And  then  again,  the  pleasure  we  all  experienced  was 
enhanced  when  we  applied  our  mathematical  knowledge  to  the 
solution  of  physical  problems.  Many  objects  of  hourly  con- 
tact had  thus  a  new  interest  and  significance  imparted  to  them. 
The  swing,  the  seesaw,  the  tension  of  the  giant-stride  ropes, 
the  fall  and  rebound  of  the  football,  the  advantage  of  a  small 
boy  over  a  large  one  when  turning  short,  particularly  in  slip- 
pery weather ;  all  became  subjects  of  investigation.  Sup- 
posing a  lady  to  stand  before  a  looking-glass,  of  the  same 

1  This  is  a  poser,  but  is  instructive  as  showing  the  range  of  questions  over 
which  some  children  ponder. 


The  Natural  Sciences  503 

height  as  herself,  it  was  required  to  know  how  much  of  the 
glass  was  really  useful  to  the  lady  ?  and  we  learned,  with  great 
pleasure,  the  economic  fact  that  she  might  dispense  with  the 
lower  half  and  see  her  whole  figure  notwithstanding.  We  also 
felt  deep  interest  in  ascertaining  from  the  hum  of  a  bee  the 
number  of  times  the  little  insect  flaps  its  wings  in  a  second."  1 

ECONOMY  OF  TIME  AND  EFFORT.  —  It  is  often  ob- 
jected that  the  problem  approach  requires  too  much  time,  - 
that  there  is  so  much  ground  to  be  covered  that  conditions 
will  not  admit  of  it.  But  of  what  use  is  covering  the  ground 
by  a  cramming  process  which  leaves  the  pupils  with  confused 
and  detached  ideas,  and  a  distaste  for  the  subject?  On  the 
other  hand,  a  reorganization  of  the  subject  matter  about  the 
larger  and  more  general  principles,  and  the  exclusion  of  topics 
that  are  either  too  difficult  for  pupils  to  comprehend,  or  are 
lacking  in  significance  to  them  because  of  not  making  intelli- 
gible connections  with  their  experiences,  makes  it  possible 
to  save  much  time.  Everybody  admits  that  the  current  text- 
books are  overloaded ;  then  why  try  to  have  the  pupils 
swallow  them  whole  ?  2  Let  us  see  what  can  be  done  by  better 
organization.  Instead  of  having  the  pupils  learn  as  discrete 
ideas  a  separate  law  for  each  of  the  simple  machines,  including 
three  different  classes  of  levers,  all  these  machines  can  be 
shown  to  come  under  two  general  statements.  The  principle 
of  moments  and  the  work  principle,  i.e.  neglecting  friction, 
the  work  got  out  of  the  machine  equals  the  work  put  into  it ; 
and  by  a  very  elementary  and  obvious  algebraic  substitution 
any  c;ise  coming  under  the  former  principle  can  be  brought 
under  the  latter.  Out  of  the  work  principle  directly  we  get 
the  efficiency  equation  also.  So  one  single  principle,  or  two 
at  most,  covers  all  these  cases  or  any  others  similar  to  them. 

1  Youmans,  op.  <•//.,  pp.  So  ft". 

2  Each  author  during  the  last  twenty  years  has  had  to  include  all  the  topics 
covered  by  his  predecessors  and  add  a  few  more  in  order  that  his  publishers' 
agents  might  meet  the  "talking  points"  of  their  competitors.     For  the  manifest 
absurdity  of  the  result,  see  Mann,  op.  cit.,  p.  208. 


504  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

To  this  principle  add  that  of  the  parallelogram  of  motions, 
Newton's  third  law,  and  clarified  statements  of  the  intuitive 
notions  of  gravity,  inertia,  mass,  and  uniform  speed,  and 
you  have  practically  all  the  principles  under  mechanics  of 
solids  that  it  is  worth  while  trying  to  teach  pupils  of  high 
school  age.  All  the  other  details  will  be  more  easily  remem- 
bered because  associated  with  these  few  principles,  well  under- 
stood, instead  of  being  scattered  in  many  discrete  groups.1 

In  a  similar  way,  each  one  of  the  less  comprehensive  principles 
of  heat,  electricity,  sound,  and  light  may  be  approached  through 
simple,  interesting  problems,  some  qualitative  and  more  of 
them  quantitative,  all  of  them  starting  with  knowledge  that 
the  pupils  already  possess  and  proceeding  by  consecutive  steps 
of  experimentation  and  reasoning  toward  the  goal.  Like 
those  of  mechanics,  these  in  turn  can  be  shown  to  be  compre- 
hended by  a  few  larger  and  more  inclusive  principles  which 
make  up  the  theoretical  framework  of  the  whole  subject. 

FUNDAMENTAL  CONCEPTS.  —  Thus  we  have  the  few 
fundamental  concepts  of  physics,  time  and  space,  mass  and 
inertia,  electricity  and  ether,  all  related  to  one  another  and  made 
apparent  through  the  transformations  and  transferences  of 
energy  that  take  place  in  connection  with  phenomena  that 
are  described  by  them.  So  also  we  have  the  great  compre- 
hensive principles  of  action  and  reaction,  of  the  conservation 
of  energy,  of  the  degradation  of  energy,  and  of  relativity  which 
serve  to  sum  up  and  connect  all  the  facts  and  phenomena  which 
the  beginner  in  physical  science  can  successfully  examine 
and  fairly  master.  The  molecular  and  electron  theories  may 
perhaps  be  given  at  the  end  of  the  course,  but  are  not  needed 
for  the  effective  organization  of  the  most  important  and  sig- 
nificant facts.  The  earlier  introduction  of  these  theories  will 
certainly  serve  only  to  confuse  the  pupils  and  draw  them  away 

1  To  see  how  this  reorganization  has  been  effected  in  a  plan  that  is  working 
successfully  in  many  schools,  examine  the  first  three  chapters  of  Mann  and  Twiss, 
op.  ciL,  pp.  17-67. 


The  Natural  Sciences  505 

from  the  safe  and  firm  ground  of  facts  that  they  can  grasp 
through  first-hand  observation  and  experimentation  into  what, 
at  least  for  them,  must  remain  a  treacherous  atmosphere  of 
speculation.1 

SYLLABI.  —  To  those  teachers  who  are  in  such  circum- 
stances that  they  must  conform  to  the  content  of  the  syllabi 
of  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board  or  those  of  state 
authorities,  it  may  be  said  that  the  plan  of  organization  and 
teaching  here  outlined  can  be  followed  under  these  syllabi 
if  careful  attention  is  given  to  relative  emphasis  on  the  various 
items  that  the  syllabi  call  for.  None  of  their  makers  ever 
intended  that  the  syllabi  should  be  followed  slavishly  as  to 
order  of  topics  or  that  the  same  emphasis  should  be  placed  on 
every  item.  Even  if  this  really  had  to  be  done,  better  results 
could  be  obtained  by  devoting  the  bulk  of  the  year  to  real 
teaching  after  the  manner  here  described,  and  devoting  three 
or  four  weeks  at  the  end  of  the  course  to  a  "  cramming"  re- 
view for  the  examinations. 

LABORATORY  WORK.  —  The  method  for  physics  out- 
lined in  this  chapter  will  not  necessitate  discarding  immediately 
the  laboratory  equipment  that  the  school  has  on  hand.  A 
number  of  the  experiments  usually  made  in  the  laboratory 
are  lacking  in  significance  and  are  not  worth  the  time  that  is 
spent  on  them ;  but  the  greater  part  of  them  may  be  made 
valuable  if  they  are  presented  in  a  better  way.  For  example, 
take  one  of  those  on  specific  gravity.  Approached  in  the 
customary  way,  the  purpose  of  the  experiment  is  usually 
stated  as  follows,  "  To  find  the  specific  gravity  of  a  solid  that 
sinks  in  water."  Stated  thus,  it  has  no  significance.  There 
is  no  motive.  Why  should  the  student  care  to  find  the  specific 
gravity  of  "  a  solid  "  that  he  is  not  going  to  do  anything  with  ? 
Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  we  raise  the  question  as  to  how 

1  For  suggestions  as  to  a  detailed  elaboration  of  such  a  course  as  has  been 
indicated,  see  the  chapters  on  the  various  divisions  of  the  subject  in  the  Mann 
and  Twiss  Physics  and  read  Mann's  Teaching  of  Physics,  Part  III. 


506          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

much  work  will  be  required  to  lift  a  large  block  of  stone  to 
its  position  in  a  neighboring  building  under  construction.  The 
answer,  of  course,  can  be  obtained  by  multiplying  the  weight 
by  the  height  to  which  it  is  to  be  lifted ;  but  how  are  we  to 
find  the  weight?  A  little  questioning  will  usually  elicit  from 
the  pupils  the  suggestion  that  the  dimensions  can  easily  be 
measured  and  the  volume  calculated.  Then  if  we  knew  the 
weight  of  a  unit  of  volume  of  the  stone,  we  could  multiply  this 
by  the  total  volume  and  get  the  weight  of  the  block,  also  the 
weight  for  unit  volume  of  the  stone  can  be  found  by  determin- 
ing the  specific  gravity  of  a  sample  of  it.  Again,  suppose  that 
instead  of  assigning  an  experiment  "  to  determine  the  specific 
gravity  of  a  liquid  "  the  teacher  proposes  that  the  pupils 
find  out  whether  the  milk  that  they  are  receiving  at  their 
homes  has  been  watered.  There  will  then  be  a  real  motive 
for  finding  the  specific  gravity  of  the  milk  and  for  making 
a  hydrometer  which  they  can  use  for  that  purpose  at  home.1 
Other  changes  in  attitude  of  the  same  sort  can  easily  be  made 
by  every  teacher  for  himself.  Thus  pupils  need  no  longer 
make  an  experiment  "  to  find  the  electrical  resistance  of 
a  wire,"  but  can  find  out  "  whether  a  tungsten  lamp  if  sub- 
stituted for  a  carbon  lamp  will  save  more  than  its  increased 
cost,"  and  so  on.  Under  this  sort  of  teaching,  the  laboratory 
experiment,  instead  of  being  abstract,  formal,  and  meaningless 
to  the  pupils,  becomes  a  necessary  step  in  the  solution  of  a  live 
human  problem  that  the  pupils  have  some  real,  sane  reason 
for  desiring  to  solve. 

THE  PROGRESSIVE  PROGRAM.  —  (i)  The  content  of 
the  modern  physics  course  is  not  objectionable  in  itself,  but 
is  too  bulky  and  needs  to  be  cut  down. 

(2)  We  must  drop  out  the  highly  abstract  and  theoretical, 
the  incidental  and  insignificant.  Whatever  is  entirely  foreign 
to  the  pupils'  present  purposes,  present  knowledge,  and  daily 

1  For  such  an  experiment  see  T \viss,  G.  R.,  Laboratory  Exercises  in  Physics. 
Scott,  Foresman  &  Co.,  Chicago,  IQOO,  p.  88. 


The  Natural  Sciences  507 

experiences,  and  cannot  be  connected  "up  with  it  through  sig- 
nificant problems  in  whose  answers  they  can  be  vitally 
interested,  should  be  eliminated. 

(3)  There  must  be  a  change  in  emphasis  that  will  result  in 
paying  most  attention   to   the   "  big  dynamic   things  "  *   in 
physics,  and  to  those  facts  and  minor  principles  which  have 
a  human  bearing,  which  are  exemplified  in  the  pupil's  own 
locality,  and  which  are  therefore  significant  because  they  raise 
questions  in  whose  answers  the  pupils  can  see  some  use. 

(4)  Minor  and  special  principles  and  definitions  must  be 
justified  before  the  pupils  are  required  to  learn  them.     This 
can  be  done  only  by  putting  the  pupils  in  situations  where 
the  need  for  these  definitions  or  principles  is  apparent  in  con- 
nection with  the  work  they  are  doing.     In  other  words,  defi- 
nitions, principles,  and  generalizations  are  justified  by  lead- 
ing up  to  them  inductively  through  concrete  problems  that 
arise  out  of  the  pupil's  previous  knowledge  and  their  spirit 
of  wonder  or  intellectual  curiosity. 

(5 )  There  should  be  a  constant  grouping  of  similar  phenom- 
ena under  the  definitions  or  laws  or  principles  which  describe 
them ;    and   a   continuous  process  of  organization,   showing 
how  each  group  of  phenomena  takes  its  place  with  other  groups 
under  a  broader  principle  or  generalization,  thus  building  up 
the  content  of  the  science  in  the  pupils'  minds  as  a  unified  and 
classified  whole.     This  means  a  reorganization  of  the  courses 
usually  given,  and  an  entire  change  in  the  mode  of  approach 
so  as  to  arrive  at  the  abstract  and  general  by  the  way  of  the 
concrete  and  particular,  instead  of  vice  versa. 

(6)  The  teacher  should  neglect  no  opportunity  that  will 
enable  him  to  aid  the  pupils  in  forming  association  bonds 
between  the  physical  ideas  acquired  in  the  schoolroom  and 
the  various  kinds  of  problems  of  everyday  life  which  those 
principles  assist  in  solving.     In  other  words  let  them  learn 
to  apply  their  physical  knowledge  by  practice  in  applying  it. 

1  Cf.  Mann,  op.  cit..  Chap.  X. 


508  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

If  these  principles  are  applied  in  the  teaching,  lack  of  in- 
terest in  the  subject  will  be  rare ;  and  the  outcome  is  almost 
certain  to  be  satisfactory. 

CHEMISTRY 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  BASIS.  —  Chemistry  is  par  ex- 
cellence the  experimental  science,  inasmuch  as  little  chemical 
knowledge  of  consequence  can  be  learned  without  making 
experiments.  Observation  here  plays  fully  as  important  a 
role  as  in  the  other  sciences ;  but  very  little  can  be  observed 
of  the  chemistry  of  substances  without  first  doing  something 
with  them.  Thus,  chemical  experiments  appeal  directly  to 
a  fundamental  instinct.  "To  do  something  and  have  some- 
thing happen  as  the  consequence  is,  other  things  being  equal, 
instinctively  satisfying,  whatever  be  done  and  whatever  be 
the  consequent  happening."  l  This  is  fortunate  for  the  psy- 
chological teaching  of  chemistry,  because  perception  of  its 
facts  and  acquisition  of  its  concepts  are  not  favored  so  highly 
as  in  the  other  sciences  by  familiar  experiences  and  common- 
sense  intuitions,  in  terms  of  which  the  facts  and  relations  that 
are  presented  in  the  teaching  can  be  interpreted ;  and  it  is 
therefore  not  so  easy  to  make  obvious  connections  between 
chemical  lore  and  everyday-life  situations  as  it  is  to  make  such 
connections  in  presenting  the  other  sciences.  But  although 
the  chemistry  teacher  is  thus  at  a  disadvantage,  he  has  strong 
allies  in  the  original  tendencies  to  manipulate  2  and  experiment. 
In  the  case  of  chemistry,  then,  if  we  are  to  start  our  teaching 
with  a  problem  growing  out  of  the  child's  experience,  we  must 
let  him  get  the  necessary  experience  by  making  chemical 
experiments  himself,  and  in  the  beginning  depend  for  motiva- 
tion largely  on  his  original  tendencies  toward  manipulation 
and  toward  "  doing  things  to  have  something  happen,"  plus 

1  Tborndike,  E.  L.,  The  Original  Mature  of  Man.     Teachers  College,  Columbia 
University,  New  York,  1913,  p.  142. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  135-138. 


The  Natural  Sciences  509 

whatever  liking  for  purposeful  experimentation  he  may  have 
been  fortunate  enough  to  have  acquired  through  previous 
scientific  training  in  school  or  out. 

If  this  be  true,  then  two  conclusions  follow,  which  might 
indeed  have  been  inferred  from  common-sense  considerations, 
apart  from  psychology,  namely:  (i)  it  is  of  little  avail  to 
attempt  to  teach  chemistry  without  a  large  amount  of  in- 
dividual laboratory  experimentation,  and  (2)  the  very  first 
lesson,  and  every  succeeding  lesson  in  which  a  new  topic  is 
taken  up,  should  be  an  experimental  problem  in  which  the 
pupil  himself  is  the  experimenter,  guided  and  assisted,  of 
course,  by  the  teacher. 

HOW  TO  BEGIN.  —  Many  teachers  and  many  textbooks 
make  the  traditional  mistake  of  beginning  with  general  ob- 
servations about  chemistry,  its  value,  and  its  relations  to  the 
other  sciences,  with  definitions  of  physical  and  chemical 
changes,  of  elements,  compounds,  and  mixtures,  and  even  of 
atoms  and  molecules.  This  is  not  only  productive  of  gross 
waste  of  time,  but  tends  also  to  form  the  habit  in  the  pupils 
of  depending  for  their  facts  on  books  and  authority  instead 
of  forming  in  them  the  habit  of  making  their  own  judgments 
on  the  basis  of  what  the  facts  themselves  have  to  reveal  to 
them  through  their  senses.  To  create  such  an  attitude  at  the 
start  is  fatal  to  the  scientific  spirit  which  it  is  the  mission  of 
science  teaching  to  engender.  Furthermore,  it  is  of  course 
impossible  for  pupils  to  form  any  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  a  generalization  or  definition  unless  they  have  become  ac- 
quainted through  first-hand  experience  with  a  considerable 
number  of  the  specific  facts  of  which  it  is  a  general'  or  con- 
densed statement.  The  wise  teacher  then  will  seek  at  once 
for  some  problems  that  can  be  solved  only  by  experiments 
simple  enough  for  the  pupils  themselves  to  carry  out,  and 
that  at  the  same  time  lead  straight  toward  some  of  the 
important  facts  and  principles  of  chemistry.  A  number  of 
these  can  be  found  which  lead  directly  to  the  preparation 


510  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  oxygen,   and   which  grow  naturally  out  of  common  ex- 
perience. 

For  example,  why  is  iron  always  nickel  plated,  or  covered 
with  paint  ?  If  rusting  is  not  at  once  suggested,  let  the  teacher 
then  show  some  specimens  of  badly  rusted  iron ;  and  if  the 
students  think  they  have  solved  the  problem  when  they  have 
said  that  the  nickel  plating  or  painting  is  to  keep  the  iron  from 
rusting,  let  him  ask  them  why.  If  they  answer  that  the  cover- 
ing keeps  the  air  away  from  the  iron,  let  him  ask  them  why  they 
think  the  air  has  anything  to  do  with  it.  If  they  are  sharp 
enough  to  answer  this  question  logically,  let  him  ask  them  how 
the  air  causes  the  iron  to  rust.  Here  their  experiential 
knowledge  will  stop  unless,  perchance,  some  one  suggests  that 
iron  does  not  rust  in  a  dry  attic  but  does  rust  in  a  moist  cellar. 
Obviously,  the  next  question  is,  "  If  the  rusting  of  the  iron  is 
connected  with  the  presence  of  moist  air,  does  the  iron  take 
something  from  the  air  to  make  the  new  substance,  rust; 
or  does  the  air  take  something  from  the  iron  ?  J  The  answer 
can  be  obtained  by  inverting  in  a  dish  of  water  a  test  tube 
into  which  some  moist  powdered  iron  has  been  introduced  so 
as  to  stick  to  its  walls  near  its  closed  end.  The  iron  soon  rusts, 
and  water  rises  and  occupies  about  a  fifth  of  the  volume  of 
the  tube,  when  the  action  stops,  leaving  some  of  the  iron 
unrusted.  The  obvious  inference  is  that  the  iron  takes  away 
one  fifth  of  the  air,  and  that  when  it  has  done  so,  that  portion 
of  the  air  which  was  capable  of  taking  part  in  the  rusting 
process  was  used  up,  so  no  more  iron  was  rusted.  If  the  tube 
be  removed  and  a  lighted  taper  plunged  into  it,  the  flame  is 
extinguished,  showing  that  the  part  of  the  air  used  up  was 
that  part  which  supports  combustion.  Powdered  iron  in 

1  For  the  detailed  procedure  in  solving  this  problem  so  as  to  get  to  the  bottom 
of  it,  see  Smith,  A.,  and  Hall,  E.  H.,  The  Teaching  of  Chemistry  and  Physics. 
Longmans,  Xe\v  York,  1904,  pp.  107  IT.  The  Chemistry  section  of  this  book 
should  be  read  and  reread  by  every  teacher  of  chemistry.  It  is  the  soundest, 
most  thorough,  and  most  helpful  discussion  of  the  pedagogy  of  chemistry 
that  is  known  to  the  writer. 


The  Natural  Sciences  511 

a  watch  glass  counterpoised  on  a  balance  and  left  in  a  moist 
atmosphere  gradually  rusts  and  is  seen  to  increase  in  weight. 
Thus  it  is  proved  conclusively  that  something  from  the  moist 
air  is  added  to  the  iron  to  make  it  rust.  These  experiments 
may  be  followed  by  heating  weighed  mercury,  tin,  and  lead  in 
porcelain  crucibles,  noting  the  respective  changes  in  prop- 
erties and  the  increases  in  weight.  The  early  historical  knowl- 
edge of  these  changes  can  then  be  recounted,  oxygen  pre- 
pared from  mercuric  oxide,  like  that  obtained  by  heating,  and 
the  experiments  of  Priestley  and  Lavoisier  explained.  The 
pupils  will  then  be  keen  to  prepare  oxygen  in  larger  amounts 
from  potassium  chlorate  and  "  do  things  with  it  to  find  out 
what  will  happen."  In  this  way  their  memory  bonds  between 
oxygen  and  its  properties  will  be  formed  and  may  be  firmly 
established  by  later  reviews  and  drills.  Also  they  are  more 
likely  to  catch  the  scientific  spirit  than  if  they  began  with 
definitions  and  formal  experiments  "  to  illustrate  and  make 
clear  "  the  difference  between  physical  and  chemical  changes, 
and  the  difference  between  compounds  and  mixtures. 

The  teacher  who  knows  how  to  work  experiments  for  all 
they  are  worth  will  bring  these  differences  out  clearly  in  con- 
nection with  the  experiments  described  ;  and  if  so  brought  out, 
they  will  be  better  remembered  because  learned  in  connection 
with  problems  that  can  be  seen  to  lead  to  some  significant  goal. 
The  advantage  lies  in  the  mental  attitude  of  the  pupil.  The 
formal  and  didactic  approach  tends  to  make  him  lean  on  the 
crutch  of  authority,  while  the  problem  approach  tends  toward 
the  open-minded  scientific  attitude  and  the  desire  to  know 
and  prove  truth  for  its  social  utility.  The  experiments  sug- 
gested are  by  no  means  the  only  mode  of  problem  approach. 
Oxygen  can  be  led  up  to  in  connection  with  building  fires, 
the  burning  of  candles,1  lamps,  and  Bunsen  burners,  putting 

1  For  suggestions  see  Faraday,  Michael,  The  Chemical  History  of  a  Candle. 
Harpers,  New  York,  1890.  This  classic  example  of  lecture  presentation  of 
chemical  facts  ;ind  principles  to  youngsters  should  be  read  by  every  teacher  of 
chemistry. 


512  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

out  fires,  respiration,  the  useful  properties  and  constitution  of 
water,  and  so  on.1 

HOW  TO  USE  THE  TEXTBOOK.  —  Many  of  the  mod- 
ern textbooks  of  chemistry,  though  excellent  in  other  charac- 
teristics, do  not  present  the  facts  in  an  order  that  suggests 
the  problem  approach.  This,  however,  need  not  prevent  the 
teacher  from  giving  the  pupils  the  benefits  of  this  method. 
If  the  teacher  remembers  the  true  function  of  the  textbook 
as  a  reference  book  for  facts  that  cannot  be  easily  obtained 
by  direct  experiment  either  at  the  demonstration  table  or  by 
the  students  themselves,  and  as  a  guide  in  the  logical  organiza- 
tion and  review  of  facts,  principles,  and  theories,  he  will  use 
his  ingenuity  in  devising  suitable  problematic  situations 
through  which  the  different  topics  can  be  approached.  He 
will  not  send  the  pupils  to  the  book  beforehand  to  find  out 
from  the  printed  page  what  they  should  find  out  with  their 
own  eyes,  noses,  and  hands.  It  is  wrong  to  suppose  that  in 
the  early  stages  of  scientific  study  time  can  be  saved  by 
learning  facts  from  books.  The  pupil  does  not  learn  the  facts 
thus.  He  merely  learns  words  and  formula?  which  for  him 
can  have  no  content  because  he  lacks  the  experiential  knowl- 
edge which  alone  can  enable  him  to  apperceive  them.2  Later 
on,  after  he  has  accumulated  a  considerable  amount  of  facts 
through  first-hand  experience,  has  perceived  their  relations, 
and  has  formulated  these  relations,  largely  for  himself,  in  the 
form  of  laws,  principles,  and  generalizations,  he  is  in  a  position 
to  use  chemical  books,  articles,  and  reports  with  the  right 
attitude ;  and  it  is  then  safe  to  assign  book  lessons  and  ref- 

1  For  an  approach  through  an  experiment  to  detect  cotton  in  alleged  woolen 
cloth  and  leading  inductively  to  certain  fundamental  distinctions  of  chemical 
science,  see  Smith,  Alexander,  Elementary  Chemistry,  The  Century  Co.,  New 
York,  1914.     The  entire  method  of  this  intensely  modern  text  ought  to  be  given 
serious  study  by  teachers. 

2  Cf.  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  The  Principles  of  Teaching,  A.  G.  Seiler,  New  York, 
1906,  pp.  42  ff.,  and  Bagley,  W.  C.,  The  Educative  Process,  Macmillan,  New 
York,  1907,  Chap.  V,  or  James,  William,  Talks  to  Teachers  of  Psychology,  Holt, 
New  York,  1905,  Chap.  XIV. 


The  Natural  Sciences  513 

erences  to  such  articles  and  reports.  The  teacher,  however, 
can  never  be  too  careful  in  hammering  in  the  notion  that  every 
one  of  the  chemical  facts  that  is  to  be  learned  from  a  book 
is  simply  a  statement  of  results  attained  by  experiment, 
observation,  and  measurement  or  by  reasoning  founded 
thereon. 

THE  CONTENT  OF  CHEMISTRY.  —  Like  other  scientific 
subject  matter,  chemical  information  consists  of  facts,  laws, 
hypotheses,  and  theories  and  their  history ;  and  this  body  of 
information  has  been  built  up  and  is  being  extended  by  the 
use  of  the  scientific  method.  Like  the  other  sciences,  chemistry 
has  its  own  peculiar  special  methods  of  procedure  which  are 
found  to  be  most  expedient  in  the  solution  of  chemical  problems. 
The  facts,  of  course,  are  first  and  fundamental.  The  laws  are 
merely  convenient  condensed  statements  under  which  like 
facts  and  like  relations  between  groups  of  facts  are  summed  up. 
The  hypotheses  and  theories  are  merely  convenient  ways  of 
describing  the  facts  by  conceiving  them  to  be  like  facts  with 
which  we  are  more  intimately  acquainted. 

Since  the  laws  and  theories,  if  they  are  thoroughly  under- 
stood, are  very  helpful  for  economizing  time  in  memorizing 
facts  and  recalling  them  when  needed,  it  is  very  important 
that  the  student  should  know  the  laws  and  theories  that  he  is 
capable  of  comprehending.  But  he  cannot  comprehend  the 
laws  and  theories,  and  therefore  they  cannot  be  helpful  to 
him,  unless  he  first  knows  the  facts  or  at  least  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  facts  which  the  laws  summarize  or  the 
theories  explain.  Hence  the  following  rules  are  very  important 
for  the  teacher  of  chemistry  : 

1.  Begin  with  the  facts  of  observation  and  experiment  and 
stick  to  such  facts  throughout  the  course. 

2.  Withhold  laws  until  a  sufficient  number  of  the  facts  and 
relations  that  are  specific  cases  of  the  law  have  been  studied 
and  have  become  familiar.     The  law  can  then  be  appreciated 
as  a  device  for  the  economy  of  thought. 


514  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

3.  When  a  law  has  once  been  presented,  have  the  pupils 
connect  the  statement  of  the  law  with  every  new  specific  case 
that  comes  under  it,  until  they  habitually  do  this  for  themselves. 

4.  Withhold  theories  until  they  are  needed  to  furnish  ex- 
planations of  observed  facts.     Do  not  be  in  such  a  hurry  to 
teach  theories  that  the  facts  are  subordinated  to  them.     Laws 
and  theories  are  man-made  devices  for  describing  facts.     Facts 
are  not  to  be  degraded  into  illustrations  or  examples  of  the 
operation  of  laws  and  theories.     Laws  and  theories  do  not 
"  operate."     They  merely  say  what  in  general  goes  on  under 
certain  conditions.     If  at  any  time  the  facts  shall  be  found 
with  certainty  not  to  agree  with  them,  then  they  must  be  al- 
tered to  fit  the  facts  as  the  facts  are. 

5.  If  the  students  fail  to  understand  a  law  or  theory  when 
it  is  presented,  do  not  insist  on  their  memorizing  it  so  they  can 
repeat  it  glibly  at  once.     Give  them  time  and  more  experience 
with  concrete  cases,  and  after  a  while  they  will  have  learned  it. 
They  will  be  all  too  ready  to  substitute  the  memory  of  a  few 
words  for  knowledge  of  facts  unless  they  are  made  to  form 
the  contrary  habit.    Generalizations  are  of  supreme  importance 
if  the  facts  that  they  resume  are  comprehended  and  can  be 
recalled  and  used  with  their  aid ;  otherwise  they  are  useless. 

6.  Laws  and  theories  therefore  should  be  introduced  gradu- 
ally as  the  course  proceeds,  and  the  more  difficult  conceptions 
should  come  near  the  end  of  the  course.     This  principle  is 
recognized  in  greater  or  less  degree  in  most  elementary  texts ; 
and  in  many  of  them  the  highly  theoretical  matters  —  such 
as  the  making  of  formulae :  Avogadro's  law,  the  atomic  and 
molecular  theories,  valency,  ionization  —  are  placed  in  chap- 
ters by  themselves  so  that  they  can  be  deferred  or  omitted 
altogether,  according  to  the  judgment  of  the  teacher.     In  all 
cases  when  they  are  taught  these  theoretical  matters  should  be 
led  up  to  through  quantitative  demonstrations  or  descriptions, 
and  copious  illustration.     Whenever  chemical  theories  serve 
to  muddle  and  disgust  the  pupils  instead  of  interesting  them 


Tkc  Natural  Sciences  515 

and  clarifying  their  ideas,  such  a  result  is  proof  either  that  the 
conceptions  are  beyond  the  pupils'  abilities  or  that  the  teach- 
ing is  inefficient,  or  both.1 

7.  The  laws  of  chemistry  should  always  be  expressed  in 
such  language  as  clearly  to  imply  that  they  are  statements 
of  the  results  of  experiments.  Thus  for  the  law  of  definite 
proportions,  "  Every  sample  of  any  compound  substance  is 
always  found  to  contain  the  same  constituent  elements  in  the 
same  proportions  by  weight." 

Chemical  Laws.  —  The  law  of  definite  proportions,  the  law  of 
the  conservation  of  mass,  and  Gay-Lussac's  law  of  volumes  are 
among  the  most  important  generalizations  of  chemistry ;  and 
fortunately  they  are  not  difficult  for  high  school  pupils  to  com- 
prehend if  they  are  carefully  approached.  The  law  of  simple 
multiple  proportions  can  usually  be  taught  successfully,  but 
is  not  especially  important  to  beginners,  and  may  be  omitted 
with  little  loss.  The  law  of  combining  weights,  which  is  a 
more  general  statement  of  the  two  preceding,  is  important,  but 
probably  too  difficult  and  doubtless  should  not  be  attempted. 

The  use  of  the  physical  laws  of  Boyle  and  Charles  and  the 
law  of  vapor  pressure  in  correcting  measured  gas  volumes 
usually  proves  to  be  difficult  for  high  school  students ;  but 
the  difficulties  can  be  overcome  if  the  teacher  carefully  ex- 
plains and  illustrates  the  behavior  of  gases  which  they  describe1, 
and  does  so  in  direct  connection  with  the  actual  measurement 
of  the  gases  at  the  demonstration  table.  Often,  the  diffi- 
culties arise  because  the  teacher  assumes  that  the  pupils  know 
these  laws  from  their  previous  study  of  physics.  He  perhaps 
overlooks  the  fact  that  in  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  year  they  will 
almost  certainly  have  forgotten  how  to  apply  them.  Other 

1  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  question  of  chemical  theory,  read  Smith  and  Hall, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  69-84,  and  also  Schoch,  K.  P.,  Chemistry  in   High  Schools,   Bull. 
Univ.  of  Texas,  No.  210,  Official  Series  64,  Austin,  Tex.,  December,  ion,pp. 
44-60  passim.     See  also  the  theoretical  chapters  of  Professor  Smith's  Elementary 
Chemistry  and  compare  those  in  other  texts. 

2  Smith,  A.,  op.  cit.  p.  21. 


516  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

difficulties  arise  from  the  elevation  of  these  problems  of  the 
correction  of  measured  gas  volumes  into  ends  instead  of 
means. 

Type  Reactions.  —  It  is  wise  to  develop  strongly  the  type 
notion  in  chemistry  and  to  show  at  every  opportunity  that 
the  reactions  encountered  are  types  of  many  others  that  are 
like  them.  Thus  instead  of  having  the  pupils  learn  that 
oxygen  can  be  obtained  from  mercuric  oxide  or  potassium 
chlorate  by  heating,  a  fine  opportunity  for  the  appreciation 
of  science  as  economy  of  thought  will  be  missed  unless  the 
teacher  shows  in  connection  with  the  experiment  that  many 
other  compounds  of  oxygen,  such  as  BaO2,  PbO2,  KNO2, 
Mn02,  break  down  in  a  similar  manner  when  raised  to  high 
temperatures,  and  give  up  all  or  part  of  their  oxygen.  Thus 
the  behavior  of  HgO  or  KC1O3  is  typical  of  the  other  reactions 
shown.  So  when  hydrogen  is  obtained  by  displacing  it  from 
hydrochloric  acid  by  zinc,  the  reactions  of  other  non-oxidizing 
acids  with  zinc  and  other  metals  should  be  shown  and  ex- 
plained. This  reaction  then  no  longer  remains  a  "  method 
of  making  hydrogen,"  but  in  addition  becomes  a  type  of  the 
general  behavior  of  non-oxidizing  acids  with  metals  that 
stand  above  hydrogen  in  the  list  of  the  elements,  when  the 
latter  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  their  electrochemical 
activities. 

If  the  teacher  forms  the  habit  of  emphasizing  such  groups  of 
similar  reactions,  pointing  out  their  resemblances  to  one 
chosen  as  a  type,  and  concentrating  the  students'  attention 
on  the  general  resemblances  and  specific  differences  among 
the  reactions  of  the  group,  he  will  find  not  only  that  he  saves 
time  in  the  end,  but  that  he  secures  unlooked-for  reviews, 
stimulates  interest,  and  forms  in  the  student  the  valuable 
mental  habit  of  using  the  type  notion  to  organize  and  relate 
his  chemical  concepts.  Practice  in  thus  forming  generaliza- 
tions that  are  true  only  within  certain  limits,  and  carefully 
confining  them  in  thought  to  those  limits,  constitutes  a 


T/ic  Natural  Sciences  517 

very  valuable  part  of  the  mental  discipline  afforded  by 
science.1 

Careful  attention  to  the  types  of  reaction  would  result  in 
a  much  more  pedagogical  arrangement  of  the  subject  matter 
than  is  found  in  many  texts ;  for  the  simplest  types  of  re- 
actions could  be  grouped  at  the  beginning  of  the  course  and 
the  more  complicated  types  near  the  end.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment would  bring  in  the  reactions  of  combination  and  de- 
composition, reversible  reactions  (which  belong  to  both  the 
preceding  classes),  hydration,  displacement,  and  double  de- 
composition, approximately  in  the  order  named,  and  leave 
many  of  those  involving  oxidation,  reduction,  and  change 
of  valence  (such  as  the  reactions  of  nitric  acid  with  the  metals) 
until  later.2 

Practical  Applications.  —  Though  it  is  not  feasible  in  most 
cases  to  make  the  approach  to  new  topics  through  household 
and  industrial  applications  of  chemistry,  this  may  perhaps 
be  done  occasionally  when  the  reactions  involved  are  suffi- 
ciently simple.  The  mistake  is  often  made  of  straining  a 
point  by  beginning  with  some  industrial  fact  or  process  with 
which  the  students  are  totally  unfamiliar  and  which  at  the 
same  time  is  so  complicated  that  it  presupposes  for  its  com- 
prehension knowledge  of  chemical  principles  that  have  not 
yet  been  studied.  Nothing  could  be  worse  pedagogically 
than  this.  Again  the  mistake  is  often  made  in  high  school 
courses  in  so-called  "  applied  "  or  "  industrial  "  chemistry 
of  requiring  the  pupils  to  memorize  complicated  details  of 
processes  in  which  no  easily  perceived  applications  of  chemical 
principles  are  involved  and  out  of  which  no  clear  chemical 
concepts  can  be  evolved. 

Although  the  industrial  applications  often  involve  com- 
plicated chemistry  and  unfamiliar  substances,  there  are 
nevertheless  in  every  community  some  applications  that 

1  Cf.  p.  488,  ante,  the  type  notion  in  biology. 

2  Cf.  Schoch,  op.  cil.,  p.  47. 


518  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

can  be  examined  and  are  simple  enough  to  be  understood ; 
so  the  teacher  should  make  himself  acquainted  with  these  and 
connect  them  with  the  chemical  facts  and  principles  that 
are  applied  in  them,  at  the  time  when  these  are  being  studied. 
There  are  many  fairly  simple  chemical  substances  and  re- 
actions that  are  very  common  and  very  important  to  know 
about,  such  as  the  prevention  of  industrial  waste  through  the 
utilization  of  by-products  in  manufacturing  processes,  the 
chemistry  of  flames,  raising  of  bread  and  biscuits,  respiration, 
digestion,  sanitation,  fermentation,  drying  of  paint,  setting 
of  mortar  and  cement,  making  of  glass,  soap,  coal  gas,  domestic 
ammonia,  soda  water,  explosives  and  plastics,  inks,  dyes,  and 
varnishes,  the  nature  and  sources  of  alcohol  and  vinegar,  of 
oils,  petroleum  and  gasoline,  of  carbohydrates,  fats,  proteins, 
and  cellulose  in  foods,  of  soils  and  fertilizers  and  insecticides. 
How  much  or  how  little  of  these  is  to  be  brought  into  the 
course  must  depend  on  the  knowledge  and  judgment  of  the 
teacher,  the  ease  or  difficulty  of  bringing  the  illustrations 
into  the  classroom  or  taking  the  class  to  them,  the  amount 
of  knowledge  and  interest  that  the  pupils  bring  to  them,  the 
closeness  of  their  relation  to  the  main  features  of  the  course, 
and  many  other  considerations  concerning  which  only  the 
teacher  himself  can  decide.  Some  of  these  things  can  be 
made  the  subjects  of  excursions,  others  of  special  home  ex- 
periments and  reports  by  those  especially  interested  in  them. 
Others  still  the  teacher  may  merely  explain  and  illustrate, 
leaving  the  seeds  to  fall  on  good  ground  when  they  may,  with- 
out digging  them  up  to  see  whether  they  have  sprouted.  It 
is  certain  that  if  the  teacher  is  full  of  such  information,  and 
is  enthusiastic  about  it,  some  of  the  pupils  will  be  infected 
with  this  enthusiasm  all  the  time,  and  all  of  them  some  of 
the  time ;  and  chemistry  in  that  school  will  be  rated  as  a 
popular  and  practical  subject. 

To  save  time  for  such  work,   the  less  common  elements 
and  compounds  may  be  omitted,  and  the  most  of  the  more 


The  Natural  Sciences  519 

highly  theoretical  parts  of  the  subject  can  be  carefully  ex- 
plained and  illustrated  by  the  teacher  and  informally  dis- 
cussed by  the  class,  but  passed  over  without  requiring  that 
it  shall  be  mastered.  If  the  writer's  observations  and  those 
of  most  of  the  college  chemistry  teachers  of  his  acquaintance 
are  reliable,  he  is  justified  in  the  opinion  that  only  in  rare 
instances  are  these  theoretical  parts  mastered  anyway.  There 
is  no  sense  in  expecting  that  every  student  will  know  every 
part  of  the  course  as  well  as  every  other  part.  Such  an  ideal 
grows  out  of  a  very  poor  conception  of  thoroughness.  It 
is  important  that  the  pupils  should  know  well  and  intimately 
a  few  of  the  chemical  facts  and  laws  that  they  are  likely  to 
meet  with  now  or  later  in  their  active  life  or  their  leisure  read- 
ing, that  they  should  catch  the  spirit  and  method  and  some- 
thing of  the  logic  of  chemistry,  that  they  should  know  how  to 
plan  and  make  an  experiment,  and  that  they  should  know 
where  to  find  chemical  books  and  how  to  get  needed  infor- 
mation out  of  them.  It  is  not  important  that  they  should 
become  walking  encyclopedias  of  chemical  information. 

TEE   TEACHER 

PERSONALITY.  —  To  be  successful,  the  teacher  must 
be  an  optimist,  must  be  an  enthusiast  for  the  science  that 
he  or  she  is  teaching,  must  be  willing  to  work  hard,  must  be 
genuinely  interested  in  his  pupils  and  their  success.  He 
must  himself  possess  the  open-minded  scientific  spirit,  and 
must  be  ready  to  regard  his  teaching  problems  as  experimental 
problems,  to  be  solved  by  variation  of  methods  with  sys- 
tematic testing  and  selection. 

TRAINING.  —  For  success  in  high  school  science  work  pro- 
found learning  and  research  ability  are  not  required,  but 
common  sense  and  sound  scholarship  are.  The  teacher 
should  know  well  and  thoroughly  the  science  or  sciences 
that  he  is  teaching,  and  should  keep  his  knowledge  up  to  date 
in  every  phase  of  it  that  touches  his  teaching.  Beyond  this 


520          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

his  knowledge  is  better  if  it  be  extensive  rather  than  intensive ; 
for  he  should  have  a  fair  acquaintance  with  the  other  sciences 
and  the  relations  of  the  others  to  his  own.  He  should  have 
a  ready  command  of  correct  English,  and  should  have  mas- 
tered the  elementary  principles  of  modern  inductive  logic 
as  applied  in  the  scientific  method.  If  he  teaches  physics, 
or  indeed  chemistry  either,  he  must  also  know  mathematics 
well,  —  the  more  he  knows  of  it  the  better,  for  he  cannot 
grow  in  scholarship  in  his  subject  without  the  higher  mathe- 
matics. All  teachers  of  science,  but  especially  those  who 
teach  physics  and  chemistry,  should  be  able  to  make  pho- 
tographs and  lantern  slides,  to  operate  a  projecting  lantern, 
and  to  use  at  least  the  simpler  kinds  of  tools.  A  teacher 
of  physics,  especially,  who  cannot  construct  simple  apparatus 
and  make  ordinary  repairs  is  incompetent.  So  also  is  a 
teacher  of  biology  who  is  not  reasonably  expert  in  the  use 
and  care  of  a  microscope  and  the  technique  of  making  sec- 
tions and  mounting  them  on  slides.  Some  ability  to  draw 
and  a  considerable  amount  of  skill  in  experimentation  are 
also  indispensable  to  success  in  any  branch  of  science.  So 
also  every  teacher  of  science  should  have  a  thorough  up-to- 
date  knowledge  of  elementary  psychology  and  the  principles 
of  teaching.  These  are  the  essentials.  Whatever  else  the 
teacher  has  obtained  in  the  way  of  general  culture  and  special 
training  is  all  to  the  good.  With  rare  exceptions  the  requisite 
training  cannot  be  acquired  otherwise  than  by  four  years  of 
college  or  normal  school  study  under  teachers  who  have  them- 
selves had  advanced  university  work.  In  addition  to  major 
work  in  the  subjects  he  is  to  teach,  the  secondary  science 
teacher  should  have  minor  work  in  at  least  one  biological 
science,  one  earth  science,  and  one  physical  science,  and  courses 
on  the  teaching  of  his  own  subject  or  subjects.  No  man  or 
woman  who  is  honest  will  be  satisfied  to  continue  in  the  work 
unless  he  has  had  this  minimum  of  training  or  is  persistently 
and  systematically  working  towards  it.  A  college  degree  is 


The  Natural  Sciences  521 

not  essential,  but  an  amount  of  training  which  it  is  supposed 
to  represent  is  absolutely  necessary. 

PROFESSIONAL  SPIRIT.  —  The  teacher  of  science  should 
also  be  a  diligent  reader  of  the  literature  of  his  subject.  He 
should  support  by  his  subscription  and  read  School  Science 
and  Mathematics,  should  keep  up  in  a  general  way  with 
the  progress  of  science  through  Science,  Nature,  or  Science 
Abstracts,  and  if  possible  should  read  some  of  the  articles  in 
the  professional  scientific  journals  or  proceedings  of  the 
national  societies  of  scientists  who  are  specialists  in  the 
branch  that  he  is  teaching.  He  should  also  read  whatever 
books  there  are  on  the  pedagogy  of  his  subject.  Whenever 
he  can  do  so,  he  ought  to  attend  the  national  or  local  meet- 
ings of  scientific  societies  and  associations  of  teachers  where 
science  and  science  teaching  are  discussed,  and  give  himself 
the  opportunity  to  meet  the  leading  workers  in  his  field  and 
catch  the  inspiration  that  such  contact  affords.  Finally,  as 
a  citizen  and  a  representative  of  science  in  his  community,  the 
science  teacher,  when  he  can  occasionally,  ought  willingly  to 
respond  to  an  invitation  to  give  an  illustrated  popular  lecture 
on  some  phase  of  his  subject ;  and  if  he  is  making  some  ex- 
periments in  methods  of  presentation  or  has  hit  upon  some 
new  laboratory  device  or  experiment  that  others  would  be 
helped  by  knowing  about,  he  should  write  a  description  of  it 
for  School  Science  and  Mathematics.  No  teacher  will  be 
able  for  long  to  inspire  his  pupils  with  the  love  of  study  unless 
he  is  himself  an  earnest  student  and  an  active  professional 
worker. 

TOPICS   FOR  FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  Can  the  antithesis   between  the   standpoint  of   a  "liberal"  and 
a  "vocational"  aim  in  education  be  reconciled  in  the  teaching  of  the 
sciences  by  the  method  of  the  problem  approach?     Cf.  Bagley,  W.  C., 
The  Educative  Process,  Chap.  Ill,  and  Snedden,  David,  The  Problem  of 
Vocational   Education,  Houghton   Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1910,  pp.    1-8, 
26-34,  7i-74,  81. 

2.  From  your  own  standpoint,  compare  and  criticize  the  views  of 


522  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Herbert  Spencer  in  his  Education,  Chap.  I,  of  Huxley  in  his  Science  and 
Education,  Chaps.  IV,  V,  and  VI,  and  of  Matthew  Arnold  in  his  Essays 
in  Criticism,  pp.  37  ff.  Can  the  different  ideas  be  reconciled?  How? 
If  not,  where  does  the  truth  lie  ? 

3.  What  possibilities  does  geography  possess  for  developing  the  right 
social  and  moral  attitudes  in  adolescents?     See  Dewey,  John,  Moral 
Principles  of  Education,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1909,  Chap.  IV, 
and  his  School  and  Society,  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1913,  Chap.  I. 

4.  Should  we  try  to  "create  interest"  in  a  new  topic  of  science,  or 
to  find  in  it  something  which  connects  with  the  interests  of  the  pupils  ? 
See  Dewey,  John,  Interest  and  Effort,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston, 
1913,  Chap.  II,  especially  pp.  23,  25,  33-35,  41-45,  86-89. 

5.  Make  a  list  of  life  situations,  in  the  occupations  of  some  of  your 
acquaintances,  in  which  the  specific  habits  that  should  be  formed  in 
the  sciences  that  you  have  pursued  would  probably  function. 

6.  Make  a  similar  list  for  concepts  and  ideals  of  methodical  procedure. 

7.  Make  a   bibliography  of   books  that   should  be  in   every  school 
library,  as  supplementary  reading  for  pupils  in  the  various  sciences, 
especially  such  books  as  may  have  inspirational  value. 

8.  Choose  any  topic  with  which  you  are  familiar  and  make  a  de- 
tailed lesson  plan  for  teaching  it.     Include  plans  for  field  or  laboratory 
work  in  connection  with  the  class  conference. 

9.  In  several  textbooks  on  any  one   science  apply  the   criteria   for 
choice  of  subject  matter  ;   and  find  the  ratio  or  percentage  that  you  would 
retain.     Limit  the  study  to  one  group  of  topics,  and  estimate  the  amounts 
in  lines  of  print. 

10.  Choose  a  topic  in  any  one  science,  and  make  a  list  of  the  infor- 
mation on  this  topic  that  would  probably  be  possessed  as  a  result  of 
previous  experience  by  the  majority  of  a  class  of  city  children.     Make 
a  similar  list  appropriate  to  a  class  of  village  or  country  children.     Make 
out  a  list  of  easy  questions  which  when  put  to  the  individuals  of  the  class 
would  reveal  their  knowledge  or  ignorance  of  the  information  that  you 
have  listed.     Such  a  list  could  be  used  for  testing  the  actual  status  of 
the  class  when  beginning  the  topic.     The  same  list,  given  after  the  study 
of  the  topic,  could  be  used  to  compare  their  status  after  the  training 
with  their  status  before  the  training. 

11.  Write  out  as  good  a  statement  as  you  can  of  your  concept  of  ado- 
lescence ;  read  Professor  Whipple's  chapter  on  that  subject  in  this  book 
with  a  view  to  converting  your  psychological  concept  into  a  logical  one ; 
then  make  a  written  statement  of  your  new,  or  logical,  concept,  and 
compare  it  part  by  part  with  the  former.     Formulate  your  concept  of 
the  scientific  method  of  study  in  about  250  to  500  words. 


The  Natural  Sciences  523 

12.  Make  a  sketch  plan  to  scale  for  a  physics  or  chemistry  classroom 
and  laboratory  combined,  with  a  stockroom  and  photographic  dark  room 
in  connection.     Plan  a  similar  room  for  biology  and  geography.     Plan 
a  layout  of  rooms  for  two  of  the  sciences,  consisting  of  two  laboratories 
with  a  classroom  between,  and  providing  for  storage  room  for  apparatus 
and  supplies. 

13.  Compare  your   experiences    in  learning    history  or   studying   a 
dramatic  selection  by  the  textbook-lesson-and-recitation  method  with 
your  experiences  in  working  up  a  topic  for  a  debate  or  a  part  which  is  to 
be  acted  in  a  play.     Make  an  estimate  of  the  relative  amount  of  in- 
terest taken  in  the  two  kinds  of  learning  and  the  relative  amount  of 
useful  material  retained  in  memory.     Compare  also  the  relative  amounts 
of  interest  displayed  by  your  classmates.     Do  the  same  in  the  case  of 
a  textbook  science  recitation  and  a  laboratory  exercise  in  which  you 
were  set  to  find  out  something  that  seemed  to  you  to  be  worth  while 
finding  out. 

14.  Read  an  article  in  the  National  Geographic  Magazine  and  try  to 
recollect,  as  you  go  along,  what  actual  experiences  and  observations  of 
yours  help  you  to  form  a  clear  mental  picture  of  the  places,  scenes,  and 
relations  described.      Can  you  find  data   from   your   own   experience 
to  support  the  arguments  of  this  chapter  for  the  approach  of  topics  in 
geography,  or  history  and  civics,  from  the  "human"  standpoint,  and 
through  local  problems?     To  justify  class  excursions  and  field  work  in 
the  sciences  ? 

15.  To  what  extent  may  collections  of  postcards,  pictures  from  maga- 
zines, and  advertising  matter  be  used  as  class  and  laboratory  illustrations  ? 
Outline  a  plan  for  mounting  and  filing  such  material. 

1 6.  Make  a  list  of  the  ways  in  which  man  controls  the  forces  of  nature 
for  his  own  purposes  in  your  home  locality. 

17.  How  much  relative  importance  do  you  attach  to  analyzing  plants 
and  making  herbaria,  as  compared  with  gaining  experimental  knowledge 
of  how  plants  grow  and  behave  ?     As  compared  with  knowledge  of 
forestry,  or  of  methods  of  testing  seed  corn  ? 

18.  Many  teachers  are  advocating  "general  science"  courses  in  the 
first  year  of  high  school.     What  are  the  arguments  for  and  against  such 
courses  ? 

19.  Admitting  that  a  "general  science"  course  should  be  introduced 
in  your  home  school,  should  it  consist  of  equal  portions  culled  from  all  the 
sciences,  or  of  a  series  of  problems  drawn  from  the  local  environment  and 
its  industries,  or  of  a  core  of  a  single  science  (say  physical  geography, 
physiology,  or  biology,   or  agriculture)   with  material  from  the  other 
sciences  brought  in  and  taught  when  needed  for  a  broader  and  clearer 


524  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

understanding  of  the  science  adopted  as  the  core?  For  references  see 
the  files  of  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  and  the  Proceedings  of  the 
National  Education  Association. 

20.  Outline  a  plan  for  cooperation  between  teachers  for  correlating 
geography  and  history,  geography  and   biology,  physics   and  mathe- 
matics, physics  and  chemistry,  physics  and  physiology,  household  arts 
or  manual  training  with  any  of  the  sciences. 

21.  Choose  a  chapter  in  any  science  textbook  and  make  an  estimate 
of  the  relative  emphasis  that  should  be  placed  on  each  topic  by  arranging 
the  topics  in  a  list  according  to  their  relative  worth  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  pupils  in  your  home  community  who  do  not  expect  to  go  to  college. 
Assuming  that  you  were  a  college  teacher  of  the  same  subject,  rank  the 
topics  again  with  reference  to  their  importance  for  the  students  who  are 
to  continue  the  subject  under  you  in  college.    What  per  cent  of  the  topics 
are  changed  in  relative  rank  ?     On  what  grounds  did  you  make  each 
change  ?     Debate  these  grounds  with  others  who  are  interested  in  the 
same  problem. 

22.  Is  it  correct  or  incorrect  for  a  textbook  to  state  a  theory  or  law 
first  and  then  justify  it  by  illustrations  ?     Does  the  fact  that  the  majority 
of  authors  do  this  prove  that  it  is  correct  ?     Can  you  bring  forward  real 
arguments  to  defend  this  practice  ?     Can  you  bring  forward  valid  argu- 
ments to  show  that  it  is  wrong  ?     If  compelled  to  use  a  textbook  built 
after  this  plan,  in  what  way  would  you  use  it  ?     Illustrate  by  a  particular 
book  and  lesson. 

23.  In  starting  a  new  subject  with  a  class  is  it  better  to  begin  studying 
about  the  subject,  or  to  begin  at  once  to  study  some  thing  or  problem  in 
the  subject  ? 

24.  At  what  point  in  the  study  of  geography  would  you  introduce  the 
concept  of  base  level  of  erosion  ?  of  a  peneplain  ?  of  a  geographical 
cycle  ?     Of  what  use  are  these  concepts  in  a  humanistic  treatment  of 
geography  ?     Answer  the  same  questions  for  the  principle  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy  and  the  molecular  theory  in  physics,  for  chemical 
equations,  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  mass  and  the  atomic  theory 
in  chemistry,  and  for  the  cell  theory  and  the  principle  of  evolution  in 
biology. 

25.  Make  out  a  plan  for  your  professional  study  for  the  next  five  years. 


The  Natural  Sciences  525 

REFERENCES 

Geography 

BRIGHAM,  A.  P.  Geographic  Influences  in  American  History.  Boston, 
1903. 

CHAMBERLAIN,  JAMES  F.  Report  of  the  N.  E.  A.  Committee  of  1909  on 
Secondary  School  Geography.  Jour,  of  Geog.,  8:  1-9,  September, 
1909.  Also  Proc.  N.  E.  A.,  1909,  p.  820. 

DAVIS,  W.  M.     Geographical  Essays.     Ginn,  Boston,  1908. 

DAVIS,  KING,  and  COLLIE.  The  Use  of  Government  Maps  in  Schools. 
Holt,  New  York.  (Price  30  cents.  Indispensable  to  teachers.) 

DODGE,  R.  E.  Geography  for  Secondary  Schools.  Jour,  of  Geog.,  7: 
121-125,  February,  1909. 

DODGE,  R.  E.,  and  KIRCHWEY,  C.  B.  Teaching  of  Geography  in  Ele- 
mentary Schools.  Rand,  McNally,  Chicago,  1913.  (High  school 
teachers  will  find  this  exceedingly  helpful,  especially  the  bibliog- 
raphies.) 

GENTHE,  M.  K.  Geographical  Text-books  and  Geographical  Teaching. 
Jour,  of  Geog.,  2:  227-243,  360-368,  May  and  September,  1903. 
(A  critical  discussion  of  methods  and  textbooks.) 

GREGORY,  KELLER,  and  BISHOP.  Physical  and  Commercial  Geography. 
Ginn,  Boston,  1910.  (College  text,  correlating  the  two  phases  of 
geography  from  the  humanistic  standpoint.) 

Journal  of  Geography  (monthly).     Madison,  Wis. 

MILL,  R.  H.  Guide  to  Geographical  Books  and  Appliances.  George 
Philip  &  Son,  London,  England,  1910.  (Most  complete  bibliog- 
raphy of  the  kind  in  English.) 

MILL,  R.H.  (editor).  The  International  Geography.  Appleton,  New  York. 
(Comprehensive  regional  treatment  of  the  continents,  exceedingly 
valuable  and  highly  authoritative.) 

National  Geographic  Magazine  (monthly).  The  National  Geographic 
Society,  Washington,  D.C. 

REDWAY,  J.  W.  The  New  Basis  of  Geography.  Macmillan,  New  York, 
1901.  (A  manual  for  the  preparation  of  teachers,  with  bibliography.) 

SALISBURY,  R.  D.  Physiography.  Holt,  New  York.  (College  text,  com- 
prehensive and  very  suggestive.) 

SEMPLE,  E.  C.  American  History  and  its  Geographic  Conditions.  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1903. 

SUTHERLAND,  W.  J.  The  leaching  of  Geography.  Scott,  Foresman  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1909.  (Treats  of  general  and  special  method,  equipment, 
etc.  Is  psychologically  sound.  Contains  extensive  bibliography, 
selected  with  great  care.) 


526  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

WHITBECK,  R.  H.,  and  MARTIN,  L.  The  High  School  Course  in  Geog- 
raphy. Bull,  of  the  Univ.  of  Wisconsin,  No.  382,  High  School  Series, 
No.  10,  Madison,  Wis.,  1910.  (Up-to-date  treatment  of  subject 
matter  and  methods  of  teaching.  Excellent  bibliography.  An 
exceedingly  valuable  pamphlet.) 

Biology 

American  Naturalist  (monthly).     Ginn,  Boston. 

BAILEY,   L.   H.      The  Nature  Study  Idea.      Doubleday,   New  York, 

1903. 

Bird  Lore  (bi-monthly).     Macmillan,  New  York. 
Botanical  Gazette  (monthly).     University  of  Chicago  Press. 
CLODD,  E.     Pioneers  of  Evolution.     Appleton,  New  York,  1897. 
GANONG,  W.  F.     The  Teaching  Botanist.     Macmillan,  New  York,  1910. 

(With  excellent  bibliography,  outlines  of  work,  experiments,  and 

other  information  indispensable  to  teachers  of  botany.) 
HEALD,  F.  D.    Botany  in  the  High  School.    Botany  Section  of  Bull,  of  the 

Univ.  of  Texas,  No.  150,  Austin,  Tex.,  1910.     (Well-selected  bibliog- 
raphy, and  outline  of  subject  matter.) 

HODGE,  C.  F.     Nature  Study  and  Life.     Ginn,  Boston,  1902. 
LLOYD,  F.  E.,  and  BIGELOW,  M.  A.     The  Teaching  of  Biology.     Longmans, 

1907.     (With  extended  special  and  general  bibliographies,  and  full 

discussion  of  laboratory  methods  and  equipment.) 
Plant  World  (monthly).     Desert  Laboratory,  Tucson,  Ariz. 
Report  of  Committee  on  United  States  Government  Publications  usable  in 

Secondary  Schools.     Proc.  N .  E.  A.,  1909,  p.  802. 
SHALER,  N.  S.     Domesticated  Animals,  their  Relations  to  Man,  and  his 

Advancement  in  Civilization.  Scribners,  New  York,  1895. 
THOMSOX,  J.  A.  The  Science  of  Life.  Stone,  Chicago,  1899. 
VON  SACHS,  JULIUS.  History  of  Botany.  Clarendon  Press,  Oxford, 

England,  1890. 

Physics 

CAJORI,  FLORIAN.     History  of  Physics.     Macmillan,  New  York,  1899. 
DEWEY,  JOHN.     Science  as  Subject  Matter  and  Method.     Science,  31: 

121-127,  January  28,  1910. 
FRANKLIX,  W.  S.     The  Study  of  Science  by  Young  People.     Bull,  No. 

431,  N .  Y .  State  Dept.  of  Education,  September  15,  1908. 
GARNETT,  WILLIAM.     Heroes  of  Science  —  Physicists.     E.  &  J.  B.  Young. 

New  York,  1885.     (Popular  and  accurate.) 
JORDAN*,   DAVID   STARR.      The  High  School  Course.      Popular  Science 

Monthly,  73  :  28-31,  July,  1908. 


The  Natural  Sciences  527 

MACH,  E.  The  Science  of  Mechanics.  Open  Court  Pub.  Co.,  Chicago, 
1893. 

MANN,  C.  R.,  and  Twiss,  G.  R.  Physics.  (Revised.)  Scott,  Foresman 
&  Co.,  Chicago,  1910.  (A  high  school  text  in  which  the  ideas  ad- 
vanced in  this  chapter  are  worked  out  for  classroom  use.) 

MANN,  C.  R.  The  Teaching  of  Physics.  Macmillan,  New  York,  1912. 
(Psychologically  sound,  very  readable,  and  exceedingly  suggestive. 
Valuable  bibliographies.) 

Science  Abstracts,  Section  A  — Physics.  Spon  &  Chamberlain,  New  York. 
(The  best  single  publication  for  keeping  up  with  the  progress  of 
research  and  discovery  in  physics.) 

Scientific  American  and  Scientific  American  Supplement.     New  York. 

SHUSTER,  A.  The  Progress  of  Physics  during  Thirty-three  Years, 
University  Press,  Cambridge,  England,  1911. 

SMITH,  A.,  and  HALL,  E.  H.  (See  under  Chemistry.  The  part  by  Pro- 
fessor Hall  contains  much  information  of  value  to  teachers  of 
physics,  including  bibliographies.) 

STALLO,  J.  B.  The  Concepts  and  Theories  of  Modern  Physics.  Appleton, 
New  York,  1897. 

Symposium  on  the  Purpose  and  Organization  of  Physics  Teaching.  Avery, 
L.  B.  —  Baldwin,  J.  Mark  —  Butler,  Nicholas  Murray  —  Chute, 
H.  N.  —  Crew,  Henry  —  Dewey,  John  —  Hall,  G.  Stanley  — 
Michelson,  Albert  A.  —  Millikan,  R.  A.  —  Strong,  E.  A.  —  Terry, 
H.  L.  —  Twiss,  G.  R.  —  Woodhull,  John  F. ;  School  Science  and 
Mathematics,  December,  1908  and  January,  February,  and  March, 
1909.  (Published  also  in  pamphlet,  price  10  cents.) 

TERRY,  H.  L.  The  New  Movement  in  Physics  Teaching.  Educational 
Review,  37  :  12-18,  January,  1909. 

THORNDIKE,  E.  L.  Science  Teaching  as  seen  from  the  Outside.  Bull. 
No.  34,  N.  Y.  State  Dept.  of  Education,  August,  1907. 

Twiss,  G.  R.  Laboratory  Exercises  in  Physics.  Scott,  Foresman  &  Co., 
Chicago,  1906.  (This  manual  is  not  fully  up  to  date  from  the  author's 
present  point  of  view ;  and  a  few  of  the  experiments  in  it  would  now 
be  rejected  by  him ;  but  it  contains  an  abundance  of  others  which 
are  entirely  satisfactory,  and  give  excellent  results  with  the  pupils. 
Contains  many  valuable  hints  to  teachers  on  laboratory  work  and 
equipment.) 

WATSON,  W.  A  Text-book  of  Physics.  Longmans,  New  York,  1907.  (A 
well-balanced  college  text,  very  readable.) 

WOODHULL,  JOHN  F.  Science  for  Culture.  School  Science  ant!  Mathe- 
matics, 7  :  83-93,  February,  1907.  Also  in  School  Review,  Chicago, 
February,  1907. 


528  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Chemistry 

BAUER,  HUGO.    A  History  of  Chemistry.     Longmans,  New  York,  1907. 

BURNS,  E.  E.     Story  of  Great  Inventions.     Harpers,  New  York,  1910. 

FREUND,  IDA.  The  Study  of  Chemical  Composition.  The  University 
Press,  Cambridge,  England,  1904.  (An  advanced  account  of  the 
method  and  historical  development  of  theoretical  chemistry. 
Exceedingly  valuable  to  the  teacher  who  would  learn  the  true  spirit 
and  method  of  science  as  well  as  the  theories,  past  and  present,  that 
have  helped  to  advance  chemical  knowledge.) 

REMSEN,  IRA.    Organic  Chemistry.     Heath,  Boston,  1909. 

ROSCOE,  H.  E.  John  Dalton  and  the  Rise  of  Modern  Chemistry.  Mac- 
millan,  New  York,  1895. 

SCHOCH,  E.  P.  Chemistry  in  High  Schools.  Eidl.  Univ.  of  Texas,  No. 
210,  Austin,  Tex.,  1911.  (Hints  on  methods  and  equipment, 
excellent.) 

SMITH,  A.,  and  HALL,  E.  H.  The  Teaching  of  Chemistry  and  Physics. 
Longmans,  New  York,  1 904.  (A  very  complete  treatment,  as  to  chem- 
istry, both  philosophical  and  pedagogical,  including  methods  of 
laboratory  management  and  equipment,  and  extended  bibliog- 
raphies.) 

SMITH,  A.     Inorganic  Chemistry.     The  Century  Co.,  New  York. 

Laboratory  Outline  of  General  Chemistry.     The  Century  Co.,  New  York. 

THORPE,  T.  E.  Essays  in  Historical  Chemistry.  Macmillan,  New 
York,  1894. 

VAN'T  HOFF,  J.  H.  Physical  Chemistry  in  the  Service  of  the  Sciences. 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  1903. 

VON  MEYER,  ERNEST.  A  History  of  Chemistry,  from  the  earliest  times 
to  the  present  day,  being  also  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  the 
science.  Macmillan,  New  York,  1898. 

WEICHMANN,  F.  G.  Science  Sketches,  Chemistry.  Wm.  R.  Jenkins,  New 
York,  1899.  "Very  readable  and  very  good." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
MATHEMATICS 

NATURE  AND  USE  OF  THE  SUB JECT.  —  Attempts 
to  define  so  broad  a  subject  as  mathematics  have  not  been 
very  successful.  Benjamin  Peirce,  one  of  the  best  of  the 
American-trained  mathematicians,  said  that  "  mathematics 
is  the  science  that  draws  necessary  conclusions."  Such  a 
definition  trespasses  upon  the  domain  of  logic ;  but  there  are 
many  who  would  relate  logic  and  mathematics,  as  sciences, 
more  closely  than  is  commonly  done.  Professor  Bocher 
has  suggested  a  basis  of  definition :  "  We  may  seek  some 
hidden  resemblance  in  the  various  objects  of  mathematical 
investigation,  and,  having  found  an  aspect  common  to  them 
all,  we  may  fix  on  this  as  the  one  true  object  of  mathematical 
study.  Or  we  may  abandon  the  attempt  to  characterize 
mathematics  by  means  of  its  objects  of  study,  and  seek  in 
its  methods  its  distinguishing  characteristic.  Finally  there 
is  the  possibility  of  combining  these  two  points  of  view." 
When,  however,  we  attempt  to  define  the  science  with  respect 
to  its  objects,  we  are  confronted  by  so  many  difficulties  that 
there  seems  but  little  hope  of  success.  There  seems  more 
chance  of  favorable  results  in  attempting  to  define  the  science 
by  means  of  methods,  and  numerous  efforts  in  this  direction 
have  been  made.  Professor  J.  W.  Young  has  recently  sug- 
gested the  defining  of  "  abstract  mathematical  system  "  as  a 
system  of  symbols  devoid  of  content  except  such  as  is  implied 
in  the  assumptions  concerning  them,  and  then  saying  that 
"  mathematics  as  a  whole  might  then  be  defined  as  consist- 
ing of  all  such  abstract  mathematical  systems  together  with 

2M  529 


530  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

all  their  concrete  applications."  These  attempts  at  denning 
the  science  serve  at  least  to  show  the  broadening  of  the  subject 
from  century  to  century. 

Reasons  for  its  Study.  —  With  this  broadening  of  the  science 
itself  has  come  not  merely  the  difficulty  of  definition,  but  also 
the  difficulty  of  stating  in  concise  terms  the  certain  reasons 
for  studying  the  subject.  We  may  set  forth  certain  reasons  for 
studying  this  phase  or  that,  but  for  studying  a  science  that  is 
so  broad  that  we  can  hardly  define  it,  and  so  far-reaching 
in  its  applications,  it  is  manifestly  well-nigh  impossible. 

In  the  elementary  portions  of  the  general  field  it  is  possi- 
ble to  assign  some  reasons  for  studying  the  science.  Among 
these,  utility  stands  out  prominently,  and  indeed  there  are 
few  parts  of  mathematics  that  have  not  very  definite  applica- 
tions to  some  other  line  of  science  or  to  some  of  the  arts. 
Not  only  is  there  the  definite  application  of  the  present  to  be 
considered,  but  there  is  potential  application.  No  one 
thought  when  complex  numbers  were  first  suggested  that 
they  would  in  our  day  play  a  part  in  the  theory  of  electricity, 
for  example ;  nor  did  the  Egyptians  and  Greeks  see  in  their 
shadow  reckoning  the  forerunner  of  the  trigonometry  that 
uses  the  slide  rule  and  logarithms  in  its  computations,  as  at 
present.  Certain  of  the  reasons  for  the  study  of  mathematics 
are  set  forth  under  the  various  branches  considered  later. 

Branches  of  the  Subject.  —  There  is  no  well-defined  basis 
for  the  satisfactory  classification  of  the  branches  of  mathe- 
matics. Indeed,  the  modern  tendency  is  toward  the  uniting 
of  these  branches  rather  than  their  differentiation.  In  ele- 
mentary mathematics  this  tendency  shows  itself  in  the  use 
of  the  simple  equation  and  the  introduction  of  mensuration 
in  arithmetic ;  in  the  use  of  the  facts  of  mensuration  thus 
learned  in  algebra;  in  the  use  of  algebra  in  the  elementary 
course  in  geometry  ;  and  in  the  use  of  both  algebra  and  geom- 
etry to  a  greater  extent  than  formerly  in  trigonometry.  Many 
would  like  to  see  the  union  of  elementary  mathematics  made 


Mathematics  531 

still  more  close,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  interrelation  of 
algebra  and  geometry  will  become  more  and  more  pronounced, 
not  in  their  complete  fusion,  since  the  methods  of  reasoning 
vary  so  much  in  the  two  branches,  but  in  the  emphasizing 
of  the  natural  points  of  contact. 

Range  of  Secondary  Mathematics.  —  At  present  in  America 
secondary  mathematics  includes  algebra,  geometry,  and  trigo- 
nometry. It  is  probable  that,  in  the  natural  course  of  evolu- 
tion, this  conception  of  the  subject  will  be  changed  to  har- 
monize with  world  experience.  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
fair  working  knowledge  of  the  algebra  and  geometry  of  the 
artisan  should  not  be  given  in  Grades  VII  and  VIII,  where 
at  the  present  time  the  mathematics  is  chiefly  sociology  and 
a  low  grade  of  economics,  —  the  subject  of  taxation,  for  ex- 
ample, having  practically  no  mathematics  left  in  it.  There 
is  no  reason  why,  at  the  end  of  Grade  IX,  a  pupil  should  not 
know  what  algebra  and  geometry  mean  and  how  to  solve  the 
ordinary  problems  of  mensuration  by  trigonometry.  In  the 
next  two  years  the  pupil  should  be  allowed  to  elect  algebra, 
geometry,  and  trigonometry,  the  experience  of  the  world 
showing  that  this  work  can  easily  be  covered  at  this  time. 
In  the  twelfth  school  year  a  fair  idea  of  the  calculus  and  me- 
chanics can  be  given,  and  is  given  in  many  parts  of  the  world. 
The  future  may  reasonably  have  this  in  store  for  American 
pupils,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  slow  preparation  to  get  teachers 
ready  for  such  work. 

ALGEBRA.  General  Nature  of  the  Subject.  —  The  term 
algebra  has  had  several  meanings  in  the  development  of  the 
subject  as  we  now  understand  it,  and  even  at  present  it 
is  used  in  a  rather  undefined  sense.  As  first  used,  the  term 
referred  to  the  science  of  the  equation,  as  will  be  seen  in  the 
remarks  below  on  the  history  of  algebra.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  symbolism  it  came  to  refer  to  that  part  of  mathe- 
matics which  teaches  the  use  of  letters  to  represent  numbers, 
not  merely  in  equations  but  in  operations  essential  to  the 


532  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

study  of  more  advanced  mathematics,  such  as  the  fundamental 
operations  resembling  those  of  arithmetic.  Among  the  va- 
rious attempts  to  define  algebra  may  be  mentioned  Newton's 
characterization  of  the  subject  as  "  universal  arithmetic," 
the  more  common  one  of  "  generalized  arithmetic,"  and 
Comte's  expression,  the  "  calculus  of  functions,"  as  distin- 
guished from  arithmetic,  which  is  the  "  calculus  of  values." 
None  of  these  attempts  is  more  than  a  mere  epigram.  The 
fact  is  that  mathematicians  do  not  find  it  necessary  or  profit- 
able to  attempt  any  exact  definition  of  the  science.  It  is 
the  calculus  of  certain  functions,  and  in  general  these  func- 
tions are  those  involving  addition  and  an  inverse,  multi- 
plication and  an  inverse,  involution  and  an  inverse.  Thus, 
besides  a  -f-  b  =  c  we  have  a  =  c  —  b,  and  b  =  c  —  a  ;  be- 
sides ab  =  c  we  have  a=c-s-b,  b=c  +  a;  besides  a6  =  c 
we  have  a  =  -\/c,  but  b  =  log  c  -7-  log  a  is  commonly  excluded 
from  elementary  algebra,  and  log  a  is  not  considered  as  an 
algebraic  number.  Algebra  is  commonly  considered  at  pres- 
ent to  mean  that  part  of  mathematics  which  uses  letters  to 
represent  numbers,  which  treats  of  the  operations  of  arith- 
metic performed  with  numbers  represented  in  this  manner, 
and  which  emphasizes  the  use  of  the  equation.  Higher 
algebra  is  taken  to  include  such  topics  as  symmetric  func- 
tions, power  sums,  the  proof  of  the  fact  that  every  algebraic 
equation  has  a  root,  number  congruences,  continued  fractions, 
determinants,  and  various  other  theories  needed  in  advanced 
work. 

Reasons  for  Studying  Algebra.  —  There  has  of  late  been 
some  justifiable  criticism  of  the  conventional  teaching  of  algebra 
as  the  subject  has  come  down  to  us.  This  has  been  accom- 
panied, as  is  usual  in  such  movements,  by  the  attack  of  the 
extremist  who  would  like  to  do  away  with  the  subject  alto- 
gether. Each  of  these  movements  is  worthy  of  attention, 
and  the  essential  feature  of  any  reply  must  ultimately  rest 
upon  the  reasons  for  the  study  of  algebra.  There  are  those 


Ma  thema  tics  533 

who  object  to  the  reasons  usually  given  because  they  are  too 
numerous,  as  if  the  varied  reasons  that  a  boy  has  for  loving 
his  mother  should  be  adduced  to  show  that  he  does  not  love 
her  at  all,  or  should  not  love  her.  There  are  various  reasons 
for  studying  algebra,  as  for  studying  every  other  subject, 
and  most  of  those  which  arc  advanced  have  a  good  basis. 

Limiting  ourselves  to  a  few  of  the  more  important  reasons 
why  every  pupil,  girl  as  well  as  boy,  should  study  the  subject, 
it  may  first  be  said  that  general  information  requires  it.  If 
mathematics  did  not  touch  every  great  business  enterprise, 
all  kinds  of  engineering,  all  our  conception  of  the  infinite 
about  us,  all  great  industries,  the  work  of  the  twentieth-cen- 
tury artisan,  the  navigation  of  the  ships,  and  the  building  of 
aeroplanes,  then  it  might  be  treated  as  a  luxury  for  the  scholar 
alone ;  but  mathematics  does  touch  all  these  lines  of  mental 
and  manual  activity,  and  hence  it  is  a  subject  about  which 
every  person  should  be  somewhat  informed,  just  as  every 
person  should  be  informed  about  the  growth  of  industry,  the 
emancipation  of  labor,  the  history  of  invention,  and  his  duties 
to  his  fellows. 

But  is  algebra  of  enough  importance  to  be  included  in  a 
course  of  study  for  the  reason  given  above  ?  To-day,  yes ; 
the  question  was  more  debatable  yesterday.  To-day  there 
is  no  artisan  who  takes  a  trade  journal  or  who  reads  a  man- 
ual devoted  to  his  line  of  work  who  does  not  meet  the  formula 
and  who  does  not  need  to  know  how  to  evaluate  and  manipu- 
late it.  To-day  is  a  day  of  encyclopedias,  but  no  mechanic 
reads  an  article  on  his  subject  without  finding  that  he  must 
know  the  universal  language  of  algebra.  The  rules  of  diet 
and  the  laws  of  sanitation,  in  which  the  woman  is  coming  to 
be  an  expert,  are  now  stated  in  algebraic  terms.  Statistics 
are  given  in  graphs,  conclusions  from  these  statistics  appear 
in  formulas,  simple  rules  of  physics  are  given  as  equations, 
and  a  knowledge  of  this  language  is  essential  to  even  a  fair 
degree  of  education. 


534  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

This,  however,  is  not  the  inherited  algebra,  and  it  is  the 
latter  which  is  open  to  criticism  rather  than  the  algebra  of 
the  future.  And  yet  the  inherited  subject  has  some  undis- 
puted value.  It  gives  facility  in  the  manipulation  of  algebraic 
expressions  which  is  helpful  in  the  kind  of  work  already  men- 
tioned, and  which  has  the  interest  of  variety.  The  pupil 
becomes  a  master  of  elementary  technique  by  this  manipula- 
tion, and  this  technique  is  valuable  to  him  whether  he  uses 
it  only  as  the  artisan  may,  or  proceeds  to  higher  mathematics. 

For  the  girl,  who  is  the  one  who  will  direct  the  education  of 
the  children  of  the  next  generation,  —  her  own  children  or 
those  of  others,  —  an  all-round  education  is  imperative. 
The  father  may  be  narrow  in  his  training,  but  the  mother 
must  have  touched  all  the  great  lines  of  intellectual  activity 
if  she  is  to  guide  her  children  intelligently. 

There  are  various  other  important  reasons  for  studying 
algebra,  such  as  the  influence  of  exact  truth  upon  character 
formation.  How  much  of  this  can  be  carried  over  into  the 
daily  action  has  never  yet  been  measured,  and  probably  it 
never  will  be  weighed  with  absolute  accuracy.  That  this 
influence  is  real,  however,  seems  undeniable.  Furthermore, 
the  habits  of  orderly  arrangement,  of  logical  argument,  of 
constantly  checking  one's  conclusions,  and  of  terseness  of 
expression  that  are  acquired  in  the  study  of  algebra,  seem  to 
be  attributes  which  carry  over  from  this  domain  to  other 
lines  of  intellectual  activity. 

Teachers  of  algebra  are  realizing  the  new  demands  upon 
the  subject  and  the  new  possibilities  before  them,  and  with 
this  realization  is  coming,  by  the  ordinary  process  of  evolu- 
tion, a  better  science  of  mathematics. 

Present  Status  in  the  Curriculum.  —  In  the  schools  of  the 
United  States  algebra  is  at  present  generally  taught  in  the 
first  year  of  a  four-year  high  school  course,  or  in  the  ninth 
school  year  beyond  the  kindergarten,  and  in  half  of  the  eleventh 
school  year.  The  general  plan  is  to  cover  the  four  fundamental 


Mathematics  535 

operations  with  integers  and  fractions,  factoring,  powers  and 
roots,  linear  equations  with  one,  two,  or  three  unknown 
quantities,  and  quadratic  equations  with  one  unknown  quan- 
tity. This  year  of  work  is  generally  followed  by  a  year  in 
plane  geometry.  Half  of  the  next  year,  the  eleventh  in  the 
pupil's  course,  is  usually  devoted  to  algebra,  reviewing  the 
preceding  work  and  completing  the  elementary  work  through 
quadratic  equations  with  two  unknown  quantities,  including 
easy  radical  equations. 

There  is  at  present  a  strong  movement  in  favor  of  using 
the  linear  equation  with  one  unknown  quantity,  and  also 
simple  formulas  in  algebraic  language,  in  the  work  in  arith- 
metic in  the  elementary  grades,  and  in  particular  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  school  years.  There  is  also  a  very  marked  ten- 
dency to  change  the  traditional  high  school  course  of  four 
years  to  a  course  of  five  or  six  years,  beginning  in  the  eighth 
or  seventh  school  year.  The  effect  of  this  plan  will  be  to 
complete  the  essentials  of  arithmetic  in  the  elementary  school 
(the  first  six  school  years),  to  review  arithmetic  in  the  high 
school  (the  second  six  school  years),  and  to  extend  the  in- 
struction in  algebra  over  a  longer  period.  This  might  profit- 
ably be  done  without  taking  any  more  time  for  mathematics 
than  at  present.  The  result,  if  we  can  secure  as  good  candi- 
dates for  teaching  as  are  secured  in  the  older  countries,  will 
be  a  much  better  training  in  algebra  before  the  pupil  enters 
college  or  goes  into  business. 

The  textbook  in  elementary  algebra  is  merely  a  develop- 
ment of  the  sixteenth-century  textbook  in  arithmetic.  One 
of  the  first  successful  works  of  this  kind  was  the  Algebra 
by  Christopher  Clavius,  a  Jesuit  teacher,  who  went  from 
Germany  to  Rome  and  published  this  textbook  in  1608. 
The  general  plan  of  the  book  is  similar  to  that  of  his  Epitome 
Arithmetics  Practices,  which  appeared  in  1583  and  which 
went  through  several  editions,  —  first  notation,  then  the 
operations  with  integers,  then  fractions,  and  then  equations. 


536  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

There  has  of  late  been  a  tendency  to  change  this  plan,  and  to 
introduce  algebra  by  showing  the  uses  of  the  formula  and  of 
the  linear  equation  with  one  unknown  quantity;  in  other 
words,  to  make  the  transition  from  arithmetic  to  algebra 
less  marked. 

In  European  Schools.  —  In  the  European  schools  it  is  the 
custom  to  introduce  abstract  algebra  earlier  than  is  usually 
the  case  in  America.  This  is  accomplished  by  combining 
it  with  arithmetic  more  fully  than  is  done  here;  by  having 
less  arithmetic  taught,  partly  because  of  the  freedom  on  the 
continent,  from  the  difficult  system  of  compound  numbers 
that  is  still  used  in  England,  Canada,  and  the  United  States ; 
and  by  having  more  vigorous  teaching  than  is  the  general 
custom  in  the  western  hemisphere.  Thus  in  the  Normallehr- 
plan  des  Gymnasiums  of  Austria,  of  1909,  algebraic  notation, 
the  negative  number,  and  the  geometric-algebraic  significance 
of  (a  +  b),  (a  -  6)2,  (a  +  6) (a  -  &),  (a  +  6)3,  etc.,  are 
introduced  in  the  sixth  school  year.  In  the  seventh  school 
year  linear  equations  with  several  unknowns  and  the  quad- 
ratic equation  with  one  unknown  are  studied.  In  the  eighth 
year  this  work  is  elaborated,  and  in  the  ninth  year,  at  a  time 
when  the  American  schools  are  usually  beginning  algebra, 
the  subjects  of  logarithms,  complex  numbers,  and  the  easier 
forms  of  higher  equations  are  being  studied.  A  somewhat 
similar  state  of  advancement  is  seen  in  the  curricula  of  several 
of  the  German  states,  in  many  of  the  English  schools,  and 
in  the  mathematical  classes  of  France.  These  facts  have 
raised  the  question  as  to  whether  the  schools  of  America  are 
utilizing  to  the  best  advantage  the  time  assigned  to  mathe- 
matics. 

GEOMETRY.  —  Etymologically,  the  word  means  earth 
measure,  from  the  Greek,  7^7,  ge,  earth  -f-  fj-erpov,  metron, 
measure.  It  has  come,  however,  to  mean  the  general  science 
of  form,  the  words  "  surveying  "  and  "  geodesy  "  being  ap- 
plied to  the  measuring  of  the  earth. 


Mathematics  537 

Reasons  for  Studying  Geometry.  —  It  has  always  been 
held  that  geometry  is  studied  because  of  a  peculiar  training 
and  pleasure  that  this  science  gives,  and  that  other  sciences 
do  not  give,  at  least  in  the  same  degree.  With  the  investiga- 
tions of  modern  psychologists  there  has  come  a  doubt  as  to 
the  value  of  the  training  that  it  gives,  and  this  has  led  many 
emotional  followers  of  new  doctrines  to  proclaim  that  geom- 
etry has  no  such  claim  upon  the  pupil's  time  as  the  advocates 
of  this  value  assert.  Modern  educators  do  not  claim,  how- 
ever, that  geometry  has  no  value  per  se,  but  rather  that  the 
methods  of  presenting  the  subject  that  have  obtained  in  the 
past  can  be  improved,  and  that  certain  of  the  values  formerly 
claimed  for  it  do  not  exist.  To  this  the  more  thoughtful 
teachers  of  the  subject  have  long  since  assented.  For  ex- 
ample, it  was  poor  policy  to  memorize  all  of  geometry,  for 
this  plan  took  away  the  pleasure  of  the  study,  and  it  did  not 
give  the  pupil  any  power  that  he  could  carry  over  into  other 
lines  of  work,  save  as  he  acquired  facts  which  he  could  have 
obtained  as  well  without  the  labor  of  memorizing  the  proofs 
of  Euclid. 

The  advocates  of  a  substantial  geometry,  as  opposed  to  the 
mere  acquisition  of  a  few  rules  of  mensuration,  claim  that 
the  study  of  geometry  brings  great  pleasure  and  an  inspiring 
mental  uplift,  when  the  subject  is  properly  presented.  They 
place  it  in  this  respect  upon  a  plane  similar  to  that  upon  which 
the  study  of  literature  and  music  rests.  They  claim  further 
that  through  geometry  a  student  acquires  a  knowledge  of 
space  relations  that  he  does  not  acquire  from  other  subjects, 
which  knowledge  he  carries  over  into  the  study  of  the  graphic 
and  plastic  arts,  of  geography  and  astronomy,  and  of  the 
science  of  mechanics.  They  also  assert  that  geometry  is 
the  only  subject  in  the  secondary  curriculum  that  gives  a 
specific  training  in  deductive  logic,  and  that  this  training 
gives  a  habit  of  thought  that  is  carried  over  into  other  lines 
of  mental  activity.  And  finally  they  claim  that  habits  of 


538  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

persistence,  of  using  only  the  necessary  steps  in  an  argument, 
of  holding  to  that  which  is  true,  of  seeking  for  exact  truth, 
and  of  arranging  work  in  logical  order,  are  instilled  by  the 
study  of  geometry,  and  that  these  habits  are  unconsciously 
transferred  to  other  fields  of  work.  In  other  words,  they 
claim  that  the  pleasure  and  the  profit  of  approach  to  exact 
truth  give  a  power  that  makes  the  pupil  stronger  in  his  other 
activities.  This  claim  is  sanctioned  by  the  opinions  of  most 
people  who  have  studied  geometry  under  a  worthy  teacher, 
and  no  investigations  thus  far  made  have  shaken  it.  The 
statement  that  geometry  has  no  value  as  a  mental  discipline 
is  usually  found  to  mean  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  mental 
discipline  as  denned  by  the  antagonist,  to  which  most  people 
would  heartily  agree. 

Present  Status  of  the  Teaching  of  Geometry.  —  Plane 
geometry  is  now  commonly  taught  in  the  United  States  in 
the  tenth  school  year,  the  second  year  of  a  four-year  high 
school.  This  is  usually  followed  by  a  half  year  of  solid  geom- 
etry, frequently  elective.  It  is  not  the  universal  custom  to 
finish  all  of  plane  geometry  in  a  single  year,  although  this  is 
done  in  many  of  the  best  schools,  and  it  probably  represents 
the  future  curriculum  as  to  the  amount  of  time  to  be  allowed 
to  the  subject.  There  is  at  present  a  tendency  to  reduce 
the  number  of  basal  propositions  and  to  increase  the  number 
of  exercises,  so  as  to  give  a  student  more  opportunity  for  in- 
dependent work.  The  eastern  colleges  do  not  require  solid 
geometry  for  entrance  to  the  arts  course,  while  the  western 
ones  frequently  do  require  it.  This  means  that  more  work 
is  covered  in  plane  geometry  in  the  secondary  schools  of  the 
eastern  states,  the  amount  of  time  spent  on  the  entire  subject 
of  geometry  being  about  the  same.  From  every  standpoint 
it  would  be  better  that  a  pupil  should  sacrifice  a  certain  amount 
of  plane  geometry  for  the  purpose  of  having  an  introduction 
to  solid  geometry,  if  he  could  acquire  the  latter  only  in  this 
manner. 


Ma  thematic  s  539 

Certain  attempts  have  been  made  to  teach  algebra  and 
geometry  simultaneously,  or  even  to  fuse  them  into  a  single 
subject.  This  has  usually  met  with  only  sporadic  success. 
That  the  foreign  schools  have  usually  run  geometry  over 
several  years,  as  opposed  to  the  American  plan,  is  liable  to 
be  misunderstood.  Where  serious  demonstrative  geometry 
has  been  begun  early  and  extended  over  several  years,  the 
results  have  not  been  satisfactory.  Usually  the  early  geom- 
etry has  been  mere  mensuration,  a  subject  that  is  taught  in 
the  American  arithmetic,  and  that  is  coming  to  be  very  satis- 
factorily taught.  It  may  therefore  be  said  that  in  America 
geometry  extends  over  several  years,  culminating  in  a  year 
or  a  year  and  a  half  of  serious  demonstrative  work.  That 
the  earlier  work  is  capable  of  great  improvement  is,  however, 
apparent.  As  to  the  fusing  of  the  two  subjects  of  algebra 
and  geometry  in  one,  this  seems  destined  to  meet  with  suc- 
cess only  in  schools  in  which  nothing  but  a  little  practical 
geometry  is  studied. 

The  question  of  the  nature  of  the  textbook  is  one  that  is 
periodically  agitated.  Several  types  have  been  suggested : 
(i)  A  book  with  the  basal  proofs  substantially  in  full,  to  serve 
as  models,  and  a  large  number  of  well-graded  exercises  for 
original  work;  (2)  a  syllabus  of  basal  propositions;  (3)  a 
book  of  suggested  proofs,  heuristic  in  nature.  Of  these  the 
first  has  been  the  one  almost  universally  used,  the  objections 
to  it  having  little  force  with  a  good  teacher,  and  the  other 
forms  being  useless  with  a  poor  teacher. 

Reforms  and  Improvements.  —  Numerous  reforms  and 
improvements  are  being  suggested  for  the  treatment  of  geom- 
etry at  the  present  time,  and  a  few  of  these  will  be  mentioned. 
(i)  That  geometry  and  algebra  be  fused  into  a  single  subject, 
an  effort  that  takes  no  account  of  the  fact  that  the  two  sub- 
jects arc  distinct  in  purpose,  in  results,  and  in  difficulty,  and 
that  each  has  a  peculiar  interest  that  is  lost  when  it  sacrifices 
its  individuality.  (2)  That  the  two  subjects  be  taught  simul- 


54-O  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

taneously,  two  days  of  one  and  three  of  the  other  during  each 
school  week.  This  has  often  been  tried  in  the  United  States, 
but  in  the  main  with  unsatisfactory  results,  not  because  the 
plan  is  unsound,  but  because  of  our  system.  Psychologically 
the  argument  is  that  the  pupil  is  not  mature  enough  for  this 
plan,  his  interest  being  better  maintained  by  concentrating 
his  energy  on  either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  argument 
that  he  would  see  the  relation  of  one  science  to  the  other 
better  by  the  simultaneous  than  the  tandem  arrangement 
is  partly  offset  by  the  custom  of  the  best  teachers  to  bring 
into  algebra  as  much  of  the  mensuration  learned  in  arithmetic 
as  possible,  and  to  introduce  into  geometry  as  many  appli- 
cations of  algebra  as  seem  adapted  to  this  purpose.  The 
plan  will  probably  succeed  in  America,  as  it  has  elsewhere, 
when  the  high  school  controls  the  teaching  in  Grades  VII  and 
VIII.  (3)  That  geometry  be  converted  into  an  applied 
science,  joining  the  general  industrial  movement  of  the  present. 
This  would  mean  that  geometry  would  cease  to  exist,  since 
the  applications  of  the  subject  are  merely  the  rules  of  men- 
suration learned  in  arithmetic,  and  learned  by  a  natural  form 
of  induction.  If  geometry  were  abolished,  it  would  be  possible 
to  introduce  other  lines  of  mathematics,  such  as  trigonometry 
(which  requires  only  very  little  geometry),  calculus  (which 
requires  practically  no  geometry  beyond  elementary  men- 
suration for  a  large  number  of  its  applications),  and  some 
little  work  in  the  practical  problems  of  vector  analysis.  For 
the  great  majority  of  students  this  seems  unwise,  since  they 
have  little  interest  in  these  applications,  but  in  certain  forms 
of  technical  high  schools  such  an  arrangement  may  prove 
necessary.  (4)  That  algebra  be  taught  for  a  half  year,  fol- 
lowed by  geometry  for  the  same  length  of  time,  and  this  by 
another  half  year  of  algebra,  followed  again  by  a  half  year  of 
geometry.  This  plan  has  certain  advantages  over  the  year 
arrangement,  but  as  yet  it  has  to  justify  itself,  the  general 
feeling  being  that  the  pupil  would  lose  more  in  immediate 


Mathema  tics  541 

interest  in  a  topic  than  he  would  gain  in  sustained  interest  in 
mathematics  as  a  whole. 

While  these  suggestions  for  reform  are  open  to  question, 
other  reforms  are  meeting  with  general  acceptance  and  are 
improving  the  current  teaching  of  geometry,  (i)  It  is  uni- 
versally agreed  that  Euclid  is  undesirable  as  a  textbook  for 
beginners,  and,  even  in  England  where  it  has  so  long  been  the 
standard,  it  is  now  superseded  by  books  more  suited  to  the 
youthful  mind.  (2)  The  propositions  of  the  textbook  are 
coming  to  be  considered  more  in  the  light  of  basal  truths,  and 
the  proofs  as  models,  and  trie  serious  work  of  the  pupils  is 
coming  to  be  more  and  more  in  the  realm  of  exercises.  (3)  The 
exercises  are  coming  to  be  more  carefully  grouped  and  graded. 
(4)  Such  legitimate  applications  as  can  be  found,  and  as  give 
interest  to  the  study  of  geometry,  are  being  sought  for  and 
introduced.  (5)  More  attention  is  being  given  to  geometric 
design,  so  long  as  this, does  not  detract  from  the  scientific  work. 
(6)  The  role  of  intuition  is  more  evident.  In  brief,  serious 
effort  is  being  made  to  make  geometry  more  interesting  and 
useful,  and  to  recognize  its  game  element  and  its  utility, 
without  destroying  the  values  that  have  long  made  it  a  recog- 
nized standard  subject  in  the  curriculum. 

ALGEBRA  AND  GEOMETRY  IN  THE  GRAMMAR 
GRADES.  —  The  idea  of  introducing  algebra  and  geometry 
in  the  elementary  school  arose  from  the  feeling  that  too  much 
arithmetic  was  required  and  that  the  foreign  mathematical 
curriculum  might  profitably  replace  the  American.  By  the 
foreign  plan,  less  arithmetic  has  been  required  than  in  the 
United  States,  allowing  time  for  some  work  in  literal  notation 
at  least,  and  in  some  form  of  geometry. 

The  idea  is  plausible,  but  like  all  new  ideas  it  has  not  been 
sufficiently  considered  by  some  of  its  advocates.  Granted 
that  there  is  some  time  available  for  algebra  and  geometry 
in  the  last  six  years  of  the  elementary  school,  what  should  be 
the  nature  of  this  work? 


542  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

As  to  algebra,  the  first  experiments  led  to  an  attempt  to 
use  a  considerable  amount  of  literal  notation  simply  because 
it  was  part  of  algebra.  Removing  of  signs  of  aggregation, 
performing  the  various  operations  with  integers  and  fractions, 
and  the  solution  of  a  rather  meaningless  lot  of  equations, 
formed  the  body  of  the  early  work  as  attempted  abroad  and 
in  America.  This  has,  more  recently,  given  place  to  a  more 
rational  use  of  algebra  as  a  part  of  arithmetic.  The  use  of 
a:  in  a  simple  equation  has  come  to  be  allowed  in  the  solution 
of  arithmetical  problems,  to  the  material  benefit  of  arithmetic. 
The  use  of  the  formula,  in  the  ordinary  algebraic  symbolism, 
has  come  to  be  a  recognized  part  of  arithmetic,  as  in  a  =  TTT. 
In  other  words,  the  part  of  algebra  that  throws  light  upon 
and  correlates  with  arithmetic  has  been  adopted,  not  as  a 
separate  subject,  but  as  something  to  be  assimilated  with  the 
older  science. 

There  are,  however,  many  schools  in  which  it  seems  best  to 
introduce  an  elementary  textbook  in  algebra  in  the  seventh 
or  eighth  school  year,  replacing  the  arithmetic  entirely.  For 
such  schools  several  good  manuals  of  elementary  algebra 
have  been  prepared.  The  best  of  these  begin  by  showing 
the  practical  uses  of  algebra,  usually  in  formulas  with  which 
the  pupils  are  familiar.  They  then  show  the  use  of  the  simple 
equation  in  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  ordinary  arith- 
metic. This  is  followed  by  the  nature  of  the  negative  number 
and  its  practical  applications.  The  fundamental  operations 
with  integers  and  fractions  are  treated  in  a  simple  fashion, 
and  the  work  closes  with  further  practical  problems  in  simple 
equations  and  easy  quadratics. 

Each  of  these  plans  is  usable,  and  each  is  adapted  to  par- 
ticular types  of  school.  The  plan  of  introducing  the  abstract 
algebra  of  the  high  school  into  the  elementary  grades  is  not, 
however,  to  be  commended. 

The  introduction  of  demonstrative  geometry  into  the  ele- 
mentary grades  has  not  been  so  successful.  It  is  true  that 


Mathematics  543 

in  the  best  English  schools  Euclid  has  been  taught  in  what 
we  would  call  the  grammar  grades,  but  this  does  not  appeal 
to  American  teachers  as  an  educational  policy  to  be  followed. 
The  work  is  too  abstract  and  too  logical  to  be  understood, 
and  the  gain  of  mere  memorizing  is  offset  by  the  loss  in  in- 
terest. Recently  in  England  there  has  been  a  great  improve- 
ment in  this  respect,  some  excellent  propaedeutic  work  being 
done  in  algebra  and  geometry.  In  Germany,  there  are  some 
good  textbooks  in  demonstrative  geometry,  adapted  to  the 
grades.  These,  however,  do  not  appeal  to  the  American 
teacher  as  usable  here.  While  better  for  the  purpose  than 
Euclid,  they  are  lacking  in  interest  and  in  motive.  It  is  a 
mistake,  however,  to  feel  that  America  has  done  nothing  in 
this  field.  There  has  always  been  a  considerable  amount  of 
work  in  mensuration  in  our  arithmetics.  Formerly  this 
was,  like  arithmetic  in  general,  merely  a  matter  of  rule ;  but 
for  some  years  back  there  has  been  a  successful  effort  made 
to  render  this  work  clear  to  the  understanding,  intuitional  if 
not  logical  in  the  formal  sense.  As  a  result,  the  work  in 
mensuration  now  given  in  the  best  American  arithmetics 
seems  a  very  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  of  intro- 
ducing some  geometry  into  the  grades,  until  the  time  when 
the  high  school  department  of  mathematics  takes  over  the 
work. 

Efforts  have  been  made,  but  with  no  marked  success,  to 
construct  a  geometry  suited  to  the  grammar  grades.  These 
have  thus  far  taken  the  form  of  textbooks  on  constructive 
geometry,  on  observational  geometry,  and  on  an  elementary 
type  of  demonstrative  geometry.  These  works  serve  a  good 
purpose  in  that  teachers  see  how  to  make  the  subject  of  men- 
suration more  real,  but  they  have  not  had  any  marked  in- 
fluence beyond  this  point.  Further  improvement  in  the  field 
of  geometry  in  the  grades  seems  to  lie  (i)  in  the  securing  of 
a  larger  number  of  practical  problems  in  mensuration, 
adapted  to  the  interests  of  the  children,  and  possibly  (2)  in 


544  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  preparation  of  a  textbook  in  geometry  similar  to  the  sev- 
eral textbooks  in  algebra  for  beginners. 

Looking  to  the  ideal  arrangement,  we  should  all  hope  for 
the  beginning  of  intuitive  geometry  in  Grade  VII,  or  earlier, 
to  be  followed  by  the  algebra  of  the  formula  and  equation  as 
soon  as  the  need  arises,  and  certainly  in  Grade  VIII.  In 
Grade  IX  formal  algebra  and  formal  geometry  may  be  given. 
Thus  every  child  would  come  to  know  mathematics  in  its 
general  bearing,  and  to  know  what  algebra  and  real  geometry 
mean.  Thereafter  the  subject  may  be  elective,  for  the  door 
has  now  been  opened  and  the  youth  may  enter  or  not  as  he 
pleases.  The  intellectual  type  will  continue  in  such  subjects 
as  mathematics,  sciences,  history,  and  languages,  while  the  non- 
intellectual  type  will  be  content  with  other  fields  of  activity. 

College  Entrance  Requirements  in  Mathematics.  —  The 
entrance  requirements  in  mathematics  in  the  American  college 
were  very  limited  until  well  into  the  nineteenth  century.  At 
present  there  is  a  rather  uniform  requirement  in  the  various 
colleges  of  algebra  through  quadratics  and  plane  geometry. 
Many  western  colleges  require  plane  and  solid  geometry, 
receiving  students  upon  certificate,  and  demanding  a  less 
intensive  course  in  plane  geometry  but  a  broader  course  in 
the  entire  elementary  field.  Technological  courses  usually 
require  solid  geometry  for  entrance,  and  often  plane  trigo- 
nometry as  well.  All  colleges  give  advance  credit  for  higher 
algebra,  solid  geometry,  and  trigonometry,  in  case  these  sub- 
jects are  not  required  for  entrance  but  are  offered  as  part  of 
the  preparatory  work. 

The  College  Entrance  Examination  Board,  founded 
in  1900,  a  voluntary  organization  of  representatives  from 
various  colleges  and  universities,  at  present  sets  examinations 
in  the  following  subjects  :  (a)  Elementary  algebra  :  (i)  algebra 
to  quadratics,  and  (ii)  quadratics  and  beyond.  This  is  divided 
into  two  examinations,  the  first  including  roots  and  the  theory 
of  exponents,  and  the  second  covering  quadratic  equations, 


Mathematics  545 

the  binomial  theorem  for  positive  integral  exponents,  and 
formulas  for  the  wth  term  and  the  sum  of  arithmetical  and 
geometric  progressions.  (6)  Advanced  algebra.  This  in- 
cludes permutations  and  combinations;  complex  numbers 
with  graphic  representation  of  sums  and  differences ;  deter- 
minants, chiefly  of  orders  not  exceeding  four;  numerical 
equations  of  higher  degree,  Descartes's  rule  of  signs,  and 
Homer's  method  of  solution,  (c]  Plane  geometry.  The  lim- 
itations are  not  definitely  fixed  by  the  board,  the  statement 
being :  "  The  usual  theorems  and  constructions  of  good  text- 
books, including  the  general  properties  of  plane  rectilinear 
figures ;  the  circle  and  the  measurement  of  angles ;  similar 
polygons ;  areas ;  regular  polygons  and  the  measurement 
of  the  circle.  The  solution  of  numerous  original  exercises, 
including  loci  problems.  Applications  to  the  mensuration 
of  lines  and  plane  surfaces."  This  practically  means  the 
plane  geometry  of  Euclid,  with  an  algebraic  treatment  of 
ratio  and  proportion,  without  the  incommensurable  cases, 
and  with  a  large  number  of  exercises,  (d)  Solid  geometry. 
This  requirement  is  also  left  indefinite,  but  it  covers  the 
ground  of  solid  geometry  as  given  by  Legendre,  upon  whose 
work  most  of  our  American  textbooks  are  based,  (e)  Trigo- 
nometry. The  requirements  are  as  follows :  Definitions  and 
relations  of  the  six  trigonometric  functions  as  ratios ;  circular 
measurement  of  angles ;  proofs  of  principal  formulas,  in 
particular  for  the  sine,  cosine,  and  tangent  of  the  sum  and 
the  difference  of  two  angles,  of  the  double  angle  and  the  half 
angle,  the  product  expressions  for  the  sum  or  the  difference 
of  two  sines  or  of  two  cosines,  etc.  ;  the  transformation  of 
trigonometric  expressions  by  means  of  these  formulas ;  solu- 
tion of  trigonometric  equations  of  a  simple  character ;  theory 
and  use  of  logarithms  (without  the  introduction  of  work  in- 
volving infinite  series) ;  the  solution  of  right  and  oblique 
triangles  and  practical  applications,  including  the  solution 
of  right  spherical  triangles. 


546  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

It  is  hardly  probable  that,  with  the  present  school  system, 
the  entrance  requirements  can  be  materially  advanced.  They 
may  be  changed  to  cover  a  broader  field  less  thoroughly,  but 
the  time  does  not  permit  of  any  more  extended  treatment  of 
mathematics  save  as  an  elective.  It  is  coming  to  be  felt 
that  two  years  devoted  to  mathematics  in  the  high  school  is 
all  that  can  be  demanded,  and  in  this  time  it  is  not  probable 
that  more  can  be  attempted  than  algebra  through  quadratics 
and  plane  geometry. 

SPECIAL  VISUAL  AIDS  TO  TEACHING  MATHE- 
MATICS. —  There  developed  in  the  early  years  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  question  of  the 
role  of  intuition,  experiment,  and  visualization  in  mathe- 
matics. The  lead  was  taken  quite  as  much  by  Austria  as  by 
any  other  single  country,  with  Germany  about  equally  prom- 
inent, and  with  certain  parts  of  Switzerland  well  to  the 
front.  The  movement  centered  largely,  in  the  early  school 
years,  in  mensuration.  It  has  been  found  that  children  of 
the  fifth  grade  appreciate  field  measurements  involving  such 
simple  apparatus  as  an  angle  measure  (even  a  radius  on  a 
paper  protractor),  and  that  they  draw  figures  to  scale  and 
compute  heights  and  distances  from  the  drawing.  Even 
before  this  grade  visual  aids  are  used  in  the  teaching  of  count- 
ing, fractions,  and  the  simple  mensuration  of  rectangles ; 
but  from  this  time  on  it  is  possible  to  introduce  systematically 
and  successfully  aids  of  a  more  scientific  character.  Among 
those  that  appeal  to  children  in  the  elementary  school  may  be 
mentioned  the  following :  the  mirror,  for  measuring  heights ; 
the  mirror  angle  for  running  perpendiculars,  useful  in  com- 
puting distances ;  the  prism,  used  for  the  same  purpose  ;  the 
hypsometer,  a  simple  instrument  that  can  be  made  from 
heavy  pasteboard  and  used  for  measuring  heights ;  the  cli- 
nometer, easily  made  from  a  paper  protractor,  and  used  in 
measuring  slopes ;  the  pocket  compass,  or  some  elaboration 
of  it  that  permits  of  measuring  horizontal  angles ;  the  pro- 


Mathematics  547 

tractor  with  a  moving  radius,  easily  made  from  paper ;  grad- 
uated staffs,  used  in  measuring  altitudes  by  means  of  simple 
ratios,  and  similar  aids  that  can  be  used  in  visualizing  mathe- 
matics in  the  field  or  schoolroom.  In  the  mensuration  of 
solids  it  is  possible  to  purchase  sets  of  models,  the  German 
ones  being  superior  in  workmanship  to  any  others.  Ger- 
man makers  also  have  for  sale  models  of  the  solids  used  in 
geometry,  from  the  elementary  to  the  most  advanced. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  quite  as  much  danger 
in  the  too  extensive  use  of  models  and  instruments  as  in  their 
neglect  altogether.  In  the  elementary  school  they  add  to 
the  interest  by  their  novelty,  and  to  the  powers  of  visualizing 
similar  forms.  In  the  secondary  school  they  are  capable  of 
abuse  by  being  used  so  extensively  that  the  pupil  depends 
upon  them  too  much  and  fails  to  acquire  the  power  of  mentally 
seeing  the  solids  that  he  is  studying.  A  moderate  use  of 
simple  instruments  (homemade,  if  necessary)  for  the  purpose 
of  mensuration  is  of  unquestionable  value.  Similarly,  the 
making  of  certain  models  in  solid  geometry  is  of  value,  and 
their  moderate  use  is  justified,  but  to  have  a  model,  or  even 
a  picture  of  one,  for  every  proposition  makes  for  weakness 
rather  than  strength.  The  general  principle,  in  elementary 
as  well  as  higher  mathematics,  is  to  use  visual  aids  only  so 
long  as  they  are  necessary  to  fix  a  mental  picture,  thereafter 
referring  to  them  only  when  this  picture  becomes  so  dimmed 
as  to  make  them  again  necessary. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  arc  three  of  the  leading  reasons  for  the  study  of  algebra,  and 
what  improvement  in  the  teaching  of  the  subject  will  bring  out  these 
reasons  more  clearly  ? 

2.  What  are  three  of  the  leading  reasons  for  the  study  of  geometry, 
and  what  improvement  in  the  teaching  of  the  subject  will  bring  out 
these  reasons  more  clearly  ? 

,}.  In  the  teaching  of  geometry,  what  changes  have  been  suggested 
that  do  not  seem  warranted  by  the  experience  of  the  world  or  by  the 
philosophy  of  education  ? 


548  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

4.  Name  three  of  the  various  types  of  textbooks  in  geometry,  and 
discuss  the  merits  of  each. 

5.  What  is  meant  by  propaedeutic  work  in  mathematics,  what  should 
be  the  nature  of  this  work,  and  when  may  it  properly  be  undertaken  ? 

6.  What  are  the  claims  of  practical  mathematics,  and  how  can  these 
claims  be  met  without  making  the  subject  too  technical  for  the  general 
student  ? 

7.  There  has  been  some  effort  to  fuse  all  mathematics  in  one  subject, 
not  teaching  algebra  by  itself,  geometry  by  itself,  and  so  on.     The  ex- 
perience of  the  world  favors  teaching  these  subjects  separately,  but 
relating  them  whenever  there  are  natural  points  of  contact.     State  the 
arguments  for  and  against  each  plan. 

8.  There  is  a  strong  movement  in  Europe  at  the  present  time  to  make 
more  of  the  function  concept,  beginning  even  in  the  early  stages  of  mathe- 
matics.    What  is  the  reason  for  this  movement  ? 

9.  In  certain  communities  much  is  being  done  at  present  to  systematize 
the  use  of  intuition  in  elementary  mathematics.     What  does  this  mean, 
and  how  is  the  work  being  carried  out  ? 

10.  With  the  new  demand  of  woman  for  the  same  opportunities  that 
man  enjoys  has  come  a  demand  for  a  serious  study  of   mathematics. 
This  is  being  best  worked  out  in  Germany  just  at  present,  but  the  demand 
must  be  met  in  America.     What,  in  your  opinion,  should  be  the  oppor- 
tunities offered  the  girl  in  secondary  mathematics,  and  how,  if  at  all, 
should  the  work  be  changed  to  meet  her  peculiar  needs  ? 

11.  Is  the  calculus  suited  to  the  high  school  pupil  in  America?     If 
so,  where  should  it  be  taught,  for  what  purpose  should  it  be  taught,  and 
what  should  be  its  general  nature  and  applications  ? 

12.  What  movements  have  taken  place  intended  to  make  secondary 
mathematics  more  interesting  to  the  pupils,  through  recreations,  mathe- 
matics clubs,  the  aesthetics  of  the  subject,  or  through  other  agencies  ? 
What  steps  would  you  advise  in  this  matter  ? 

REFERENCES 

BRANFORD,  B.     A  Study  of  Mathematical  Education.     Oxford,  1908. 
CARUS,  P.     Foundations  of  Mathematics.     Chicago,  1908. 
HILBERT,  D.     Foundations  of  Geometry.     Chicago,  1902. 
RUSSKLL,  B.     Foundations  of  Geometry.     Cambridge,  1906. 
SMITH,  D.  E.     Teaching  of  Geometry.     Boston,   1911. 

Teaching  of  Elementary  Mathematics.     New  York,  1900. 
YOUNG,  J.  W.  A.     The  Teaching  of  Mathematics.     New  York,  1907. 
The    files  of   U  Enseigncment   Mathematiqitc,    of    Schotteivs   Zeitschrift 
fur   mathematischen   und  naturwissenschaftlichen  Unterricht,  and  of 
other  current  educational  journals  of  approximately  equal  rank. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   SOCIAL   SCIENCES 
HISTORY 

NATURE  OF  HISTORY.  —  History  is  concerned  with  the 
past  life  of  man  considered  as  a  member  of  society.  It  is 
thus  distinguished  from  biography,  which  deals  only  with 
individuals,  and  from  anthropology,  which  treats  of  man 
as  a  unit  in  the  animal  kingdom ;  but  these  distinctions  are 
not  absolute,  for  the  history  of  the  individual  cannot  be  cut 
off  from  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  and  no  sharp  line  can 
be  drawn  between  the  natural  history  of  man  and  his  social 
history.  In  a  looser  sense  history  is  often  used  to  denote 
any  succession  of  facts,  as  when  we  speak  of  the  life  history 
of  a  plant  or  animal  or  the  history  of  the  solar  system  —  an 
extension  of  the  term  which  arises  from  the  general  adoption 
of  the  historical  habit  of  thought,  which  looks  upon  all  things 
in  the  universe,  not  as  fixed  and  stable,  but  as  undergoing  a 
process  of  change.  History  comprises  the  whole  period  of 
the  development  of  human  society  from  the  earliest  ages  for 
which  evidence  has  been  preserved,  and  includes  the  various 
manifestations  of  the  human  spirit  in  art,  literature,  and  re- 
ligion, as  well  as  the  vicissitudes  of  states  and  their  leaders 
and  the  course  of  economic  and  social  evolution.  Certain  of 
these  fields  are  commonly  marked  off  for  separate  treatment, 
so  that  we  have  the  history  of  language,  of  literature,  of  art, 
of  religion,  of  philosophy,  as  well  as  the  social  and  political 
sciences  which  derive  their  material  largely  from  historical 
records ;  but  such  a  division  is  one  of  convenience  only. 
None  of  these  more  special  topics  can  be  understood  apart 

S49 


550  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

from  the  general  course  of  historical  development,  and  only 
the  historian  can  bring  them  into  their  proper  relations  as 
parts  of  the  evolution  of  civilization.  Before  this  broader  con- 
ception of  history  the  attempt  to  limit  it  to  "  past  politics  " 
is  rapidly  losing  ground,  but  the  life  of  the  state,  as  the  most 
important  social  group  of  civilized  man,  must  remain  prom- 
inently in  the  foreground  of  history,  by  reason  of  its  in- 
trinsic significance  and  because  on  the  whole  it  furnishes  the 
most  natural  category  for  the  classification  of  historical  facts. 
History  thus  stands  in  especially  close  relations  with  political 
science  and  economics,  not  only  because  it  furnishes  them 
with  the  greater  part  of  their  materials,  but  also  because  it 
constantly  needs  their  assistance  in  interpreting  the  social 
and  political  life  of  the  past ;  and  for  similar  reasons  it  wel- 
comes the  advance  of  any  new  sciences,  such  as  comparative 
and  social  psychology,  which  promise  to  throw  further  light 
upon  the  social  life  of  man. 

MATERIALS  OF  HISTORY.  —  Unlike  the  natural  sci- 
ences, history  cannot  avail  itself  of  experiment  or  of  repeated 
observation.  Except  for  the  infinitely  small  body  of  informa- 
tion which  has  been  acquired  by  his  immediate  personal  ex- 
perience, the  historian  depends  entirely  upon  indirect  sources 
of  knowledge,  arriving  at  the  facts  of  the  past  only  by  work- 
ing back  from  the  existing  traces  which  they  have  left  behind 
them.  These  traces,  the  fountainhead  of  historical  knowl- 
edge, are  called  sources.  Originally  limited  to  the  oral  tradi- 
tions handed  down  in  song  and  story,  and  then  including 
written  material  in  the  bare  lists  of  early  inscriptions  and 
annals,  the  conception  of  what  constitutes  an  historical  source 
has  widened  with  the  growth  of  knowledge  and  with  the 
enlargement  of  our  ideas  of  the  scope  of  history  until  it  now 
includes,  not  only  chronicles  and  public  documents,  but  news- 
papers and  private  correspondence,  buildings  and  pictures, 
ideas,  customs,  and  superstitions,  clothing  and  tools  and 
implements  and  every  sort  of  object  from  which  information 


The  Social  Sciences  551 

respecting  the  human  past  may  be  derived.  For  purposes 
of  convenience,  sources  are  often  classified  into  narrative, 
such  as  biographies,  chronicles,  and  memoirs ;  documentary, 
including  laws,  charters,  and  official  acts  of  every  sort ;  liter- 
ary, so  far  as  literature  throws  light  on  the  ideas  and  conditions 
of  an  age ;  and  archaeological,  including  the  great  body  of 
monuments,  works  of  art,  and  material  remains.  The  use 
of  these  materials  for  historical  purposes  often  demands 
technical  knowledge  of  a  very  special  sort,  and  a  group  of 
subjects  has  grown  up  which  are  often  called  the  "  auxiliary 
sciences  "  of  history.  Chief  among  these  are  language,  as  a 
means  to  the  understanding  of  historical  records  ;  palaeography, 
or  the  science  of  ancient  writings ;  diplomatics,  treating  of 
official  documents ;  epigraphy,  or  the  science  of  inscriptions ; 
numismatics,  archaeology,  chronology,  and  historical  geography. 
PROBLEMS  OF  TEACHING  HISTORY.  —  The  teaching 
of  history,  at  least  in  the  higher  grades  of  instruction,  is  con- 
cerned with  a  body  of  knowledge,  a  point  of  view,  and  a  method 
of  inquiry.  The  body  of  historical  knowledge  is  enormous 
and  is  constantly  enlarged  by  the  progress  of  historical  in- 
vestigation as  well  as  by  the  lapse  of  time ;  and  the  problem 
of  the  teacher  is,  in  the  first  instance,  to  select  those  facts 
which  will  make  clear  the  general  course  of  historical  develop- 
ment and  contribute  to  an  understanding  of  the  periods  and 
countries  of  special  significance  with  reference  to  the  world 
as  a  whole,  and  to  the  particular  country  and  age  in  which 
the  student  lives.  These  facts  must  on  the  one  hand  be 
seen  as  actual  realities,  against  their  contemporary  back- 
ground, while  on  the  other  hand  they  must  be  grasped,  not 
as  disconnected  events  or  dates,  but  as  bound  together  in 
certain  relations  and  forming  part  of  a  continuous  process  of 
development.  The  student  must  learn  that  while  the  past 
is  vitally  connected  with  the  present  and  can  only  be  recon- 
structed by  working  back  from  the  phenomena  of  actual  ex- 
perience, it  was  never  the  same  as  the  present ;  and  he  must 


552  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

be  taught  to  lay  aside  for  the  moment  the  ideas  and  standards 
of  his  own  age  in  order  to  enter  into  those  of  the  age  he  is 
studying.  Impartiality,  sympathy,  and  imagination  thus 
become  necessary  qualifications  for  the  study  and  teaching 
of  history,  and  the  attitude  toward  the  past  which  is  thus 
attained  is  often  called  "  historical-mindedness."  One  ele- 
ment in  this  is  the  critical  spirit,  and  the  general  student  of 
history  finds  it  necessary  to  know  something  of  the  way  the 
historian  collects  and  tests  his  materials,  while  the  special 
student  requires  initiation  into  the  nature  of  historical  evi- 
dence and  the  processes  of  historical  criticism  and  construction. 
Such  training  is  necessary,  not  only  for  the  professed  his- 
torian, but  also  for  those  who  as  investigators  of  topics  in 
economics,  political  science,  education,  and  the  history  of 
literature,  art,  or  philosophy,  are,  often  without  realizing  it, 
obliged  to  make  use  of  the  historical  method  of  inquiry.  In 
the  earlier  stages  of  historical  instruction,  attention  is  given 
particularly  to  the  teaching  of  a  few  simple  facts  and  the 
development  of  the  historical  imagination ;  in  the  higher 
stages  the  number  of  facts  increases,  and  more  emphasis  is 
put  upon  their  relations  and  political  and  social  significance, 
and  upon  the  acquisition  of  a  critical  and  impartial  habit  of 
mind ;  while  in  the  most  advanced  grades  of  instruction  the 
student  learns  to  find,  test,  and  combine  his  facts  for  himself 
until  he  is  able  to  undertake  independent  research. 

THE  CHOICE  OF  MATERIALS.  ORGANIZATION  OF 
THE  COURSE  OF  STUDY.  —  The  teaching  of  history  in 
the  secondary  school  presents  two  main  problems  :  first,  the 
relative  amount  of  time  which  should  be  assigned  to  the 
subject,  with  the  periods  or  kinds  of  history  to  which  this 
time  should  be  given;  second,  the  methods  of  instruction. 
Each  of  these  problems  must  be  examined  separately  for  the 
secondary  and  for  the  elementary  school.  History  is  a  record 
of  human  experience,  the  rich  variety  of  which  is  not  indis- 
criminately valuable  for  children  of  all  ages.  The  effort  to 


The  Social  Sciences  553 

find  answers  to  these  questions  of  matter  and  method  appears 
late  in  the  development  of  educational  systems.  This  is 
due  mainly  to  the  fact  that  not  until  the  nineteenth  century 
was  the  study  of  history  well  organized  in  the  colleges. 

Growth  of  History  in  College  and  School  Curricula.  - 
History  received  its  first  recognition  as  a  requirement  for 
entrance  to  college  in  1847.  IR  that  year  Harvard  prescribed 
Worcester's  Elements  of  Ancient  History,  and  the  University 
of  Michigan  prescribed  "  Keightley's  (or  Pinnock's  Gold- 
smith's) Grecian  History  to  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
and  Roman  to  the  time  of  the  Empire."  For  some  years  the 
requirement  was  associated  somewhat  closely  with  the  older 
requirement  in  geography.  Both  at  Harvard  and  at  Michigan 
examinations  in  the  two  subjects  were  given  by  the  depart- 
ment of  history,  and  the  questions  set  bear  evidence  of  an 
intention  to  keep  the  two  fields  of  knowledge  related.  Ameri- 
can history  to  the  end  of  the  Revolution  was  added  by  Michi- 
gan in  1870,  and  the  classical  requirements  at  Harvard  were, 
during  the  next  decade,  occasionally  increased  by  chapters 
from  Freeman's  General  Sketch  of  European  History.  Cornell, 
founded  in  1868,  introduced  at  the  beginning  a  requirement 
of  Greek  and  Roman  history.  After  1870,  the  history  require- 
ment gained  steadily  in  favor,  especially  with  the  newer  and 
smaller  colleges.  In  1895,  out  of  a  total  of  475  universities 
and  colleges  investigated  by  the  Bureau  of  Education,  306 
required  American  history;  127,  general  history;  112, 
Greek  history;  116,  Roman  history;  57,  English  history; 
9,  state  and  local  history;  and  i,  French  and  German  his- 
tory. (Rep.  Com.  Ed.,  1896-1897,  p.  468.)  The  knowledge 
expected  must,  however,  often  have  been  the  merest 
outline;  for,  as  late  as  1890,  some  of  these  institutions 
were  still  using  in  their  own  classes  textbooks  like  Swinton's 
Outlines,  Anderson's  General  History,  and  Barnes's  United 
Stales.  The  diversity  of  subject  matter  required  was  prob- 
ably greater  than  in  any  other  branch  of  instruction. 


554  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten.  —  The  first  important 
step  in  the  reform  of  these  conditions  was  taken  by  the  Madi- 
son Conference  of  1892.  The  conference  did  not  feel  called 
upon  to  frame  a  definite  system  of  entrance  requirements, 
but  its  brief  discussion  of  the  problem  and  its  recommenda- 
tions for  the  general  improvement  of  history  teaching  in  the 
schools  suggested,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  essential  features 
of  the  system  afterward  adopted.  The  next  important  step 
was  taken  in  February,  1895,  in  the  appointment,  by  the  New 
England  Association  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools, 
of  a  committee  of  school  and  college  teachers  of  history  to 
deal  with  the  special  question  of  entrance  requirements  in 
history.  The  report  of  this  committee,  adopted  by  the 
Association  in  October,  1895,  proposed  a  list  of  seven  topics, 
each  representing  one  year's  work  of  three  periods  a  week, 
and  requested  the  colleges  to  accept  any  two  of  these  topics 
as  a  required  subject  for  entrance.  The  colleges  were  further 
requested  to  accept  "  any  additional  topic  or  topics  from  the 
list  as  additional  preparation  for  entrance  or  for  advanced 
standing,"  and  to  recognize  as  "  a  considerable  part  of  the 
evidence  of  proficiency  required  "  certain  specified  kinds  of 
written  work  done  in  the  secondary  school.  The  report  sug- 
gested that  entrance  examinations  in  history  should  be  so 
framed  as  to  require  on  the  part  of  the  candidate  comparison 
and  judgment  rather  than  mere  memory,  and  that  they  should 
include  tests  of  geographical  knowledge.  The  use  of  good 
textbooks,  collateral  reading,  and  practice  in  written  work 
were  to  be  presupposed.  The  seven  topics  were:  (i)  The 
history  of  Greece,  with  especial  reference  to  Greek  life,  litera- 
ture, and  art.  (2)  The  history  of  Rome ;  the  Republic  and 
Empire,  and  Teutonic  outgrowths  to  800  A.D.  (3)  German 
history.  (4)  French  history.  [(3)  and  (4)  to  be  so  taught 
as  to  elucidate  the  general  movement  of  medieval  and  modern 
European  history.]  (5)  English  history,  with  especial  refer- 
ence to  social  and  political  development.  (6)  American 


The  Social  Sciences  555 

history,  with  the  elements  of  civil  government.  (7)  A  de- 
tailed study  of  a  limited  period,  pursued  in  an  intensive 
manner.  Three  of  these  topics  were  in  the  course  of  study 
for  secondary  schools  recommended  by  the  Madison  Con- 
ference. The  other  features  are  directly  suggested  in  the 
conference  report  (Publication  No.  5,  New  England  History 
Teachers'  Association,  p.  13). 

These  recommendations  were  indorsed,  a  few  months 
later,  by  the  Schoolmasters'  Association  of  New  York  and 
Vicinity.  The  latter  had,  however,  already  proposed  a  con- 
ference on  the  whole  question  of  entrance  requirements,  and 
such  a  conference  had,  on  the  invitation  of  Columbia,  been 
arranged.  It  was  attended  by  representatives  from  Harvard, 
Yale,  Columbia,  Cornell,  Princeton,  and  Pennsylvania,  and 
made  its  report  on  the  first  of  February,  1896.  The  recom- 
mendations of  the  New  England  Association  relating  to 
written  work  and  to  examinations  were  adopted,  practically 
without  change.  The  principle  of  a  choice  of  topics  was  also 
adopted,  but  the  details  were  considerably  modified.  As  ad- 
ditional preparation  for  entrance,  or  for  advanced  standing, 
the  Columbia  Conference  proposed  a  second  group  of  topics, 
each  representing  two  years'  work  of  three  periods  a  week : 
(i)  A  course  of  Greek  and  Roman  history  for  those  only  who 
have  offered  English  history  and  American  history  as  an 
elementary  subject.  (2)  A  course  in  English  history  and 
American  history  for  those  who  have  offered  Greek  and 
Roman  history  as  an  elementary  subject.  (3)  A  course  in 
the  history  of  Europe  from  the  Germanic  invasions  to  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  (4)  A  year's  study 
of  any  of  the  elementary  fields  not  already  offered  as  an  ele- 
mentary subject,  combined  with  a  year's  study  of  a  limited 
period  within  that  field.  (Publication  No.  5,  New  England 
History  Teachers'  Association,  pp.  16,  17.) 

The  Committee  of  Seven.  —  In  the  meantime,  the  Com- 
mittee on  College  Entrance  Requirements  appointed  by  the 


556  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

National  Education  Association  in  July,  1895,  had  been 
seeking  the  cooperation  of  organizations  interested  in  the 
problem  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  special  subjects.  The 
response  of  the  American  Historical  Association  was  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Committee  of  Seven,  whose  report,  made 
in  1899,  remains  the  standard  document  on  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  history  in  American  secondary  schools.  In  framing 
recommendations  on  college  entrance  requirements  the  Com- 
mittee of  Seven  recognized  two  things  as  essential :  (i)  "  that 
the  fundamental  scope  and  purpose  of  the  major  part  of  the 
secondary  schools  be  regarded  " ;  and  (2)  "  that  elasticity  be 
allowed  that  schools  may  fit  pupils  for  college  and  yet  adapt 
themselves  to  some  extent  to  local  environment  and  local 
needs."  (Report,  121.)  A  "unit"  of  history  was  defined 
as  "  either  one  year  of  historical  work  wherein  the  study  is 
given  five  times  per  week,  or  two  years  of  historical  work 
wherein  the  study  is  given  three  times  per  week."  The 
recommendations  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  (i)  In- 
stitutions with  a  "  system  of  complete  options  in  college  en- 
trance requirements  "  (e.g.  Leland  Stanford)  were  asked  to 
accept  4  units  in  history  "  as  an  equivalent  for  a  like  amount 
of  work  in  other  subjects."  (2)  Institutions  that  prescribed 
certain  studies  and,  in  addition,  required  others  from  an 
optional  list  (e.g.  Harvard)  were  asked  to  place  i  unit  of  his- 
tory on  the  prescribed  list,  and  i,  2,  or  3  units  on  the  optional 
list.  (3)  Institutions  with  prescribed  requirements  only,  i.e. 
"  without  options  "  (e.g.  Yale),  were  asked  to  require  at  least 
i  unit  of  history.  (4)  Institutions  with  several  distinct 
college  courses  requiring  different  groups  of  preparatory 
studies  for  entrance  (e.g.  Michigan)  were  asked  to  require  i 
unit  of  history  for  the  classical  course ;  i  unit  for  the  Latin 
course ;  2  units  for  the  scientific  course ;  and  3  units  for  the 
English  course.  (Report,  123-129.)  The  Committee  of  the 
National  Education  Association  accepted  these  recommen- 
dations, but  with  the  proviso  that  one  year  of  American 


The  Social  Sciences  557 

history  and  government  should  be  accepted  as  a  requirement 
for  admission  by  all  colleges  and  universities.  In  a  similar 
spirit  the  recommendation  for  a  year  of  intensive  study  was 
qualified  by  the  phrase,  "  especially  of  the  United  States." 
(Proc.,  N.  E.  A.,  1899,  pp.  648,  665.)  At  the  present  time, 
the  units  most  widely  recognized  are  the  "blocks"  or  periods 
proposed  by  the  Committee  of  Seven  for  a  four-year  course 
in  secondary  schools:  (i)  ancient  history;  (2)  medieval 
and  modern  European  history ;  (3)  English  history ;  (4) 
American  history  and  civil  government.  These  are  the  sub- 
jects listed  by  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board. 
The  question  of  entrance  requirements  continues  to  agitate 
teachers  of  history.  It  is  admitted  that  the  action  of  colleges 
in  recent  years  in  increasing  the  amount  of  history  that  may 
be  offered  for  entrance  has  tended  to  increase  the  amount  of 
history  taught  in  secondary  schools,  but  its  influence  on 
methods  of  teaching  remains  questionable.  Teachers  still 
complain,  as  they  complained  in  the  days  of  the  Madison 
Conference,  that  the  present  examinations  compel  the  use 
of  "  bad  methods  for  college  preparation,"  and  they  are  still 
urging,  as  the  Madison  Conference  urged,  "  a  change  by  which 
schools  which  use  proper  methods  shall  have  some  advantage." 

Recent  Modifications.  —  The  complete  success  of  the 
movement  for  uniformity  has  been  hindered  by  the  conse- 
quences of  the  elective  system  introduced  into  the  schools. 
Sometimes  also  the  fact  that  many  colleges  have  not  given 
credit  for  more  than  one  or  two  units  of  history  has  had  a  simi- 
lar retarding  influence.  An  investigation  made  in  1909,  prin- 
cipally of  schools  in  the  Middle  West,  showed,  however,  that 
out  of  eighty-three  schools  offering  a  three-year  course  fifty- 
six  required  all  three  units  for  graduation. 

Dissent  from  the  recommendations  of  the  Committee  of 
Seven  has  usually  been  prompted  by  the  desire  to  lay  greater 
emphasis  upon  the  modern  period.  In  order  to  satisfy  this 
desire  a  Committee  of  Five,  partly  of  the  same  personnel, 


558  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

also  appointed  by  the  American  Historical  Association,  ad- 
vised that  schools  ready  to  make  a  change  should  place  Eng- 
lish history  as  far  as  1760,  with  its  European  connections, 
in  the  second  year  and  give  the  third  year  to  a  course  on  the 
last  century  and  a  half  of  European  history. 

Modification  of  Course  in  New  Types  of  Schools.  —  The 
recent  development  of  commercial  and  technical  high  schools 
has  rendered  necessary  a  course  adapted  to  their  requirements. 
For  them  emphasis  should  be  put  upon  the  history  of  the 
arts  and  of  trade.  The  interests  of  the  two  are  also  distinct, 
because,  although  the  achievements  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans,  and,  in  a  measure,  of  medieval  peoples,  are  instruc- 
tive to  students  of  certain  technical  arts,  students  of  com- 
merce will  find  the  modern  period  the  most  important.  Both 
should  be  taught  to  place  the  special  aspects  of  life  which 
they  study  in  a  true  historical  setting,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  should  not  forget  other  phases  of  history  which 
explain  the  general  growth  of  civilization. 

European  Courses  of  Study  and  Programs.  —  In  France 
and  Germany  the  secondary  school,  lycee  or  gymnasium,  gives 
instruction  in  history  throughout  a  nine-year  course.  The 
course  corresponds  to  a  possible  course  in  our  schools  running 
from  the  fifth  grade  through  the  elementary  school,  the  second- 
ary school,  and  up  to  the  third  college  year.  History  is  also 
given  in  elementary  schools  distinct  from  the  lycee  and  the 
gymnasium,  and  is  parallel,  therefore,  to  the  first  part  of  the 
secondary  school  course.  In  the  elementary  school  the  con- 
tent is  confined  more  exclusively  to  the  national  history  and 
omits  ancient  history.  The  last  seven  years  of  the  secondary 
course  are  divided  into  two  cycles,  one  of  four  and  one  of  three 
years,  thus  including  two  journeys  through  the  field  from 
ancient  times  to  the  present  day.  In  the  second  cycle  of  the 
French  course,  if  the  pupil  is  on  the  classical  side,  i.e.  has 
Latin  and  Greek,  or  Latin  and  the  "  living  "  languages,  he 
devotes  four  hours  to  history,  two  to  ancient  and  two  to 


The  Social  Sciences  559 

modern ;  if  he  takes  the  sciences  with  either  Latin  or  the 
living  languages,  he  devotes  two  hours  to  modern  history. 
Except  at  this  period  of  the  course,  the  time  given  to  history, 
both  in  German  and  French  schools,  averages  three  hours  a 
week,  and  the  work  is  closely  correlated  with  geography. 

In  England  the  average  amount  of  time  given  to  the  sub- 
ject is  two  hours  a  week  both  in  the  preparatory  years  and  in 
the  secondary  school  proper.  On  account  of  the  variety  of 
type  in  the  organization  of  the  English  schools  it  is  difficult 
to  summarize  the  practice.  The  most  authoritative  recom- 
mendation is  presented  in  Circular  599,  published  by  the 
Board  of  Education  in  1908,  and  includes,  for  the  first  stage, 
with  children  up  to  the  age  of  twelve,  stories  from  the  history 
of  England  and  of  other  countries,  centering  about  great 
characters  like  Charlemagne,  Columbus,  and  Washington, 
as  well  as  famous  Englishmen  ;  for  the  ages  between  twelve 
and  sixteen,  a  chronologically  continuous  course  in  English 
history  with  the  European  connections;  during  the  final 
years,  classical  history  for  students  going  to  the  universities, 
English  or  modern  continental  history  for  others.  The  cir- 
cular records  a  gradual  falling  off  in  the  practice  of  introduc- 
ing a  special  period  for  more  intensive  study,  and  argues  that 
there  should  be  judicious  selection  all  the  way  through  of 
incidents  and  characters  for  special  emphasis.  The  circular 
also  criticizes  the  concentric  method  by  which  in  some  schools 
the  whole  subject  of  English  history  is  gone  over  each  year 
summarily.  In  too  many  instances  history  is  lumped  in  the 
program  with  "  English  subjects."  The  general  influence  of 
the  type  of  questions  asked  in  various  public  examinations, 
in  competition  for  prizes,  honors,  etc.,  has  been  to  retard  the 
development  of  a  plan  of  study  satisfactory  to  the  more  pro- 
gressive teachers. 

From  the  practice  abroad,  as  well  as  from  the  character  of 
the  efforts  to  promote  the  teaching  of  history  in  American 
schools,  it  is  evident  that  the  best  opinion  is  in  agreement 


560  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

upon  the  necessity  of  making  the  instruction  continuous 
throughout  the  pupil's  school  career.  Only  by  this  means  is 
it  possible  to  form  in  his  mind  a  useful  framework  of  historical 
events  and  to  train  him  to  think  of  events  historically.  Time 
is  also  needed  for  the  growth  of  interest  and  the  formation  of  a 
habit  of  reading  historical  books.  In  the  opinion  of  a  recent 
French  minister  of  public  instruction  the  habit  of  reading  his- 
torical books  is  an  important  element  of  the  reading  habit, 
which,  next  to  the  habit  of  observation,  should  be  the  aim  of 
popular  education,  and  without  which  the  pupils  are  in  danger 
of  falling  into  illiteracy  after  they  leave  school. 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING.— Upon  methods  of  teaching 
there  is  less  agreement  than  upon  questions  of  program, 
although  for  the  attainment  of  the  aims  of  the  subject  an 
effective  method  is  more  important  than  the  choice  of  any 
particular  period  for  study.  If  the  method  of  teaching  is  not 
effective,  the  subject  is  discredited  as  an  instrument  of  edu- 
cation. As  the  matter  now  stands,  the  statement  that  a 
pupil  has  had  a  course  in  ancient  or  medieval  and  modern 
history  means  much,  little,  or  worse  than  nothing.  The  most 
urgent  need  of  the  present  time  is  the  adoption  and  the  gen- 
eral practice  of  a  well-considered  method  of  teaching  the  sub- 
ject. In  the  management  of  subjects  which  are  already  well 
organized  pedagogically,  like  English,  chemistry,  or  Latin, 
teachers  know  what  is  expected  the  first  month,  the  first 
term,  the  first  year ;  they  realize  what  are  regarded  as  the 
essential  elements  of  a  good  method.  But  the  teacher  of  his- 
tory may  confine  his  work  wholly  to  the  explanation  of  the 
paragraphs  of  the  textbook,  or  he  may  assign  selections  for 
reading  in  other  books,  or  he  may  also  utilize  collections  of 
source  material.  He  may  train  his  pupils  in  the  use  of  note- 
books or  he  may  never  allude  to  them.  What  he  shall  decide 
to  do  seems  to  depend  generally  upon  his  individual  prefer- 
ence. The  well-trained  teacher  is  capable  of  solving  the  prob- 
lem for  himself,  but  many  others  are  groping  about  among 


The  Social  Sciences  561 

haphazard   experiments  or   apathetically  following  methods 
sanctioned  by  local  tradition. 

In  Germany  there  is  a  recognized  method  of  teaching  his- 
tory. This  is  true  of  France  also,  although  French  teachers 
differ  among  themselves  in  regard  to  the  function  of  the  text- 
book. In  Germany  reliance  is  placed  mainly  on  the  teacher 
and  the  instruction  is  principally  oral.  Many  teachers  even 
object  to  the  use  of  a  notebook  during  a  class  exercise,  because 
they  wish  the  attention  of  the  pupils  concentrated  upon  what 
they  are  saying.  By  a  process  of  questioning  and  repetition 
they  work  the  facts  literally  into  the  pupil's  mind,  so  that  he  is 
gradually  enabled  to  construct  so  solid  a  framework  of  the 
past  that  it  is  serviceable  for  all  his  future  work  whether  in  the 
university  or  elsewhere.  Books  of  simple  outlines,  or  Leit- 
faden,  are  used  to  supplement  the  oral  work.  So  complete  is 
the  dependence  upon  the  teacher  that  few  or  no  references  are 
given  to  historical  works  and  there  is  slight  use  of  selected 
sources.  This  has  been  criticized  as  not  offering  the  pupil 
enough  training  for  independent  work  in  history  and  as  being 
in  one  respect  a  poor  preparation  for  the  freedom  of  university 
work.  Such  reliance  upon  the  teacher  is  possible  only  because 
of  the  thorough  training  insisted  upon  by  the  state  in  the  case 
of  every  teacher.  In  both  France  and  Germany  the  subject 
is  intrusted  almost  wholly  to  special  teachers.  Although  the 
French  use  the  textbook  more  than  the  Germans,  they  gener- 
ally go  over  the  lesson  in  a  carefully  prepared  lecture  which  the 
pupils  record  in  notebooks.  The  reason  for  this,  when  a 
textbook  is  also  used,  is  the  need  of  placing  the  right  emphasis 
and  of  stimulating  the  attention.  It  is  believed  that  by  such  a 
method  the  dull  pupil  obtains  more  than  if  he  is  expected  to 
master  without  direction  the  topics  assigned.  The  French 
do  not  make  extensive  use  of  selected  sources  or  of  other  read- 
ing references.  In  England,  with  no  central  controlling  au- 
thority, the  methods  of  work  show  less  uniformity  than  those 
of  France  or  Germany,  but  where  the  subject  is  well  taught  it 

2  O 


562  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

is  likely  to  include  excellent  training  in  writing  up  topics  on  the 
basis  of  an  intelligent  use  of  reading  references. 

European  methods  of  teaching  history  should  not  be  trans- 
ferred mechanically  to  American  practice,  but  acquaintance 
with  them  emphasizes  the  value  of  a  standard  of  work  and 
directs  attention  to  the  elements  of  the  problem.  What  may 
be  suited  admirably  to  the  needs  of  the  German  boy  in  the 
gymnasium  or  the  French  boy  in  the  lycee  may  not  take  suffi- 
cient account  of  the  more  precocious  individuality  of  the 
American  boy.  An  adequate  method  must  be  the  outcome  of 
a  careful  study  of  the  child  and  a  wise  consideration  of  the 
benefits  which  he  should  derive  from  his  work  in  history. 
The  study  of  history  should  not  merely  give  him  a  body  of 
information,  it  should  affect  his  attitude  towards  the  world 
and  train  his  mind  for  the  successful  search  for  certain  kinds 
of  truth. 

In  the  higher  grades  of  the  elementary  school  or  the 
early  years  of  the  extended  high  school  course  the  pupil 
should  be  enabled  to  form  a  picture,  fairly  accurate  in  its 
details,  and  in  chronological  order,  of  the  principal  events  of 
American  history  and  of  its  European  background,  in  order 
that  it  may  be  a  serviceable  framework  for  later  historical 
knowledge.  More  emphasis  should  be  laid  upon  reading,  in 
books  furnished  by  the  school  library  or  by  local  public  libraries. 
Some  use  can  also  be  made  of  original  sources,  with  the  aim  of 
illustrating  facts  easily  within  the  comprehension  of  children 
of  this  age.  Selections  which  illustrate  two  sides  of  a  con- 
troversy, like  that  between  Parliament  and  the  colonies  after 
1 765,  or  between  the  North  and  the  South  before  the  Civil  War, 
will  train  pupils  who  are  beginning  to  read  the  newspapers 
to  read  more  intelligently  and  with  some  effort  of  judgment. 
There  should  be  practice  in  making  simple  maps,  explaining 
geographically  an  historical  situation.  Outline  maps  may  be 
used  for  this  work.  Pictures  offer  an  opportunity  not  only  for 
awakening  interest,  but  also  for  giving  training  in  observation. 


The  Social  Sciences  563 

The  problem  of  method  for  the  secondary  school  is  more 
complex,  because  the  element  of  training  should  receive  greater 
emphasis.  The  most  obvious  requirement  of  a  course  is 
the  mastery  of  the  contents  of  the  textbook.  To  attain  this 
result  there  are  needed,  besides  the  ordinary  recitation  exer- 
cises, the  preparation  of  outlines  and  summaries,  the  construc- 
tion of  what  the  English  call  "  date  strips,"  and  the  preparation 
of  reviews.  The  teachers  most  interested  in  the  improvement 
of  the  teaching  of  history  would  add  some  reading  from  his- 
torical books  other  than  the  textbook,  the  study  of  selected 
sources  of  a  simple  and  clearly  illustrative  character,  and  the 
making  of  reports  upon  topics  with  the  use  of  several  books 
of  reference.  There  must  also  be  the  construction  of  maps. 
How  many  of  these  exercises  the  individual  teacher  may  be 
able  to  embody  in  any  particular  course  depends  upon  the 
special  conditions  of  the  school,  that  is,  the  amount  of  other 
work  demanded  of  the  teacher,  the  existence  of  a  school  or 
public  library,  the  number  of  available  historical  maps,  etc. 
Each  exercise  should  be  repeated  at  least  once,  because  the 
first  attempt  serves  principally  to  make  clear  the  difficulties. 
There  should  be  orderly  progress  in  the  manner  of  work  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  course.  The  pupil  is  studying 
history  in  order  to  learn  how  to  study  history  as  well  as  to 
acquire  a  body  of  historical  facts.  Each  exercise  should  have 
relation  to  the  preceding  and  to  what  is  to  follow. 

The  teacher's  first  task  should  be  to  construct  a  calendar 
of  the  course,  apportioning  the  work  of  each  day,  and  indicat- 
ing at  what  stage  any  particular  exercise  is  to  be  attempted. 
An  examination  of  the  textbook  will  show  what  topics  are 
adequately  treated  and  upon  what  topics  there  must  be  sup- 
plementary oral  explanations  or  informal  lectures.  It  is  ap- 
parent that  an  exercise  in  constructing  summaries  should  be 
inserted  after  an  epoch  of  marked  characteristics  has  been 
studied.  Upon  the  completion  of  the  study  of  a  long  and  com- 
plex process  an  outline,  chronological  or  topical,  will  be  useful. 


564  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Teachers  may  wish  to  use  a  simple  outline  for  each  day's 
work,  but  the  construction  of  such  outlines  should  not  be 
required  of  all  the  class  every  day,  for  this  work  would  soon 
become  mechanical  and  wearisome.  A  review  of  the  geographi- 
cal relations  of  the  subject  will  show  at  what  points  illustrative 
maps  should  be  constructed.  Certain  topics  should  be  studied 
partly  through  the  medium  of  pictures.  If  there  are  to  be 
reports  on  long  readings,  the  place  of  these  will  be  determined 
by  the  interest  of  the  topic  or  incident  and  the  availability  of 
books  on  the  subject.  The  same  is  true  of  topical  studies,  of 
which  there  should  not  be  more  than  two  or  three  during  the 
particular  course.  The  results  of  these  exercises  should  be 
embodied  in  the  pupil's  notebook.  They  should  be  written 
on  sheets  of  paper  which  may  be  inserted  without  copying  in  a 
loose-leaf  notebook.  The  pupil  will  need  careful  instruction 
upon  the  manner  of  preparing  this  written  material  for  the 
notebook. 

The  teacher  may  not  be  able  to  insert  upon  the  calendar 
more  than  an  indispensable  minimum  of  exercises,  because 
such  exercises  require  efficient  supervision,  and  the  burden 
upon  the  average  teacher  is  already  heavy.  The  way  to  meet 
the  difficulties  of  the  situation  is  to  agree  upon  what  this  indis- 
pensable minimum  includes  and  from  it  as  a  basis  work 
steadily  toward  the  desirable. 

VISUAL  AIDS  TO  TEACHING  HISTORY.— An  excellent 
description  of  special  aids  to  the  visualization  of  history,  embrac- 
ing the  United  States  and  the  principal  countries  of  Europe,  was 
published  in  the  History  Teacher's  Magazine  of  February,  1910, 
and  can  now  be  obtained  in  pamphlet  form  from  the  McKinley 
Publishing  Co.,  Philadelphia,  for  ten  cents.  There  is  also 
available  a  classified  catalogue  of  similar  scope  prepared  by  a 
committee  of  the  New  England  History  Teachers'  Association, 
and  published  by  Houghton  Mifilin  Co.,  at  fifty  cents. 
Both  of  these  contain  price  lists  and  names  of  makers,  pub- 
lishers, and  dealers.  The  extensive  German  material  is  more 


The  Social  Sciences  565 

fully  listed,  with  prices  but  without  names  of  makers  or  pub- 
lishers in  the  Verzeichnis  der  bewahrtesten  Lehr-  und  Auschau- 
ungsmitlcl  fur  Holier e-,  M it Here-  und  Elementarschulen  issued 
from  time  to  time  in  Leipzig  by  K.  F.  Koehler.  Copies  of  this 
can  usually  be  purchased  for  fifty  cents.  It  should  be  noted, 
however,  that  Koehler  accepts  orders  for  material  only  when 
sent  through  regular  dealers.  Special  circulars  descriptive  of 
the  remarkable  Rausch  models  are  sent  gratis  on  application 
to  Friedrich  Rausch,  Nordhausen  a.  Harz,  Germany.  The 
aids  of  special  practical  interest  to  American  teachers  of 
history,  and  the  question  of  how  to  use  them,  form  the  subject 
of  several  chapters  in  Johnson's  Teaching  of  History  in  Elemen- 
tary and  Secondary  Schools. 

CIVICS 

THE  TERM  CIVICS.  — The  term  "civics"  is  now  generally 
employed  to  refer  to  the  teaching  of  civil  government  in  our 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  and  in  colleges.  The  term 
"civil  government,"  which  was  formerly  very  commonly  used 
for  describing  this  study,  has  been  abandoned,  because  in  its 
interpretation  it  was  usually  narrowed  down  to  a  study  of  the 
mere  framework  of  government.  The  word  "  civics  "  is  said 
to  have  been  introduced  by  Henry  Randall  Waite  (see  Standard 
Dictionary],  and  has  the  advantage  over  the  term  "  civil 
government"  in  that  it  is  now  generally  understood  to  include  : 
(i)  ethics,  or  the  doctrine  of  duties  in  society  ;  (2)  civil  polity, 
or  governmental  methods  and  machinery ;  (3)  history  of  civic 
development  and  movement. 

Like  most  subjects  outside  of  the  three  R's  in  the  elemen- 
tary school  curriculum,  and  the  classics  and  mathematics  in 
the  secondary  school  course  of  study,  the  subject  matter  of 
civics  was  not  taught  in  schools  until  some  years  after  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

INTRODUCTION  INTO  THE  SCHOOLS.  — The  study 
made  but  slow  progress  in  the  schools,  though  the  need  of  it 


566  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

was  urgently  felt  because  of  the  ever  increasing  immigration 
of  foreigners  to  American  shores.  As  most  of  the  colleges 
gave  little  or  no  instruction  in  political  science,  they  took  no 
steps  toward  making  it  an  entrance  requirement.  After  1870 
the  subject  began  to  find  its  way  gradually  into  the  elemen- 
tary schools. 

In  1895  appeared  the  Report  oj  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  of  the 
National  Education  Association  on  the  subject  of  Elementary 
Education.  This  committee  recommended  in  connection  with 
the  subject  of  United  States  history  that  there  should  be  given 
a  study  of  the  outlines  of  the  Constitution  for  10  to  15  weeks  in 
the  last  year  of  the  elementary  school.  In  1897  the  Commit- 
tee on  Rural  Schools  of  the  same  Association  made  a  report 
recommending  a  course  in  United  States  history  and  civil 
government  for  normal  school  teachers  who  were  to  teach  in 
the  rural  schools,  and  made  some  suggestions  about  teaching  of 
morals  and  civics  in  such  schools.  In  1899  the  Committee  of 
Seven  of  the  American  Historical  Association  —  a  committee 
appointed  at  the  instance  of  a  Committee  on  College  Entrance 
Requirements  of  the  National  Education  Association  —  made 
an  elaborate  report  on  history  in  the  schools.  They  recom- 
mended that  the  fourth  year  of  the  high  school  course  be 
devoted  to  American  history  and  civics,  and  that  the  two 
subjects  be  taught  in  separate  courses  where  it  was  possible 
to  get  the  time.  Where  this  was  not  possible,  the  committee 
advised  teaching  them  together. 

The  high  schools  generally  pursued  the  latter  method  in 
order  to  save  time,  with  the  result  that  the  civics  work  was 
mainly  in  the  nature  of  constitutional  history.  Very  little 
attention  was  given  to  the  other  elements  of  civics :  the 
duties  of  citizenship  and  government  in  its  actual  workings. 
Because  of  the  failure  of  the  colleges  to  require  a  knowledge  of 
civics  for  entrance,  very  many  schools  neglected  the  subject 
almost  wholly.  In  1904  the  New  England  History  Teachers' 
Association  published  a  syllabus  upon  the  lines  laid  down  by 


T/ie  Social  Sciences  567 

the  Committee  of  Seven,  and  made  the  same  recommendations 
in  regard  to  civics.  This  tendency  to  treat  civics  as  the  "  poor 
relation  "  of  United  States  history  and  to  make  its  treatment 
only  one  of  constitutional  development  met  with  strong  op- 
position in  the  Association  of  History  Teachers  of  the  Middle 
States  and  Maryland,  in  the  North  Central  History  Teachers' 
Association,  in  the  New  England  History  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion, and  in  the  associations  of  teachers  of  various  states. 
Vigorous  protests  were  made  against  considering  the  history 
of  an  institution  the  same  as  the  study  of  an  institution  in  its 
actual  working  to-day. 

The  results  of  the  agitation  of  the  opponents  of  a  combina- 
tion course  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  on 
Civics  of  the  New  England  History  Teachers'  Association,  and 
of  another  by  the  American  Political  Science  Association.  The 
preliminary  sheets  of  a  syllabus  were  published  by  the  first 
association  in  1908,  and  the  second  association  published  a 
report  in  the  same  year  calling  for  a  separate  course  in  civics 
in  the  last  year  of  the  high  school  and  recommending  the 
making  of  the  subject  a  college  entrance  requirement. 
Throughout  the  report  there  is  a  strong  insistence  on  that 
view  of  civics  which  makes  it  a  study  of  government  in  its 
actual  working  —  national,  state,  and  municipal.  The  Na- 
tional Municipal  League  has  been  actively  engaged  in  promot- 
ing the  study  of  municipal  civics  in  the  schools,  and  in  its 
proceedings  of  1905  it  presented  a  syllabus  for  such  instruction 
in  both  elementary  and  secondary  schools.  So  far  the  recom- 
mendations have  had  little  effect.  The  schools  of  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  have  had  an  admirable  syllabus  drawn  up  for  use  in  this 
subject,  and  the  High  School  of  Commerce  in  New  York  City 
has  established  a  course  in  Municipal  Activities. 

PRESENT  STATUS.  -  -  Notwithstanding  the  great  activ- 
ity of  civic  bodies  and  teachers'  associations  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  civics  as  a  subject  in  the  schools  is  still  in  a  very 
unsatisfactory  condition.  In  spite  of  the  emphatic  statements 


568  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  various  committees,  it  is  still  taught  in  the  form  of  con- 
stitutional history,  and  the  pupil  gets  little  notion  of  the  way  in 
which  the  government  is  actually  being  carried  on  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  In  the  elementary  schools  of  Boston  and  vicinity 
no  attention  is  paid  to  it  until  the  last  year,  though  vague 
statements  are  made  at  times  that  "  civil  government  shall  be 
taught  throughout  the  course  in  history."  In  the  last  year 
provision  is  usually  made  for  the  study  of  the  Constitution. 
In  New  York  City  in  the  elementary  schools  the  syllabus  calls 
for  lessons  in  civics  beginning  with  the  fourth  grade,  and  these 
run  through  the  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades.  In 
the  absence  'of  a  detailed  syllabus  the  work  is  not  as  well 
carried  out  in  some  schools  as  it  is  in  others.  The  city  of 
Cleveland  has  prepared  the  best  syllabus  for  civics  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools.  It  begins  in  a  very  simple  way  in  the  third 
grade,  and  is  carried  through  the  balance  of  the  eight  grades. 
In  the  Latin  schools  of  Boston  and  vicinity  the  subject  is 
virtually  non-existent.  In  the  high  schools  it  is  optional  in  the 
third  year,  and  sometimes  required,  as  in  Cambridge.  When 
optional  it  is  seldom  taken.  In  New  York  City  and  vicinity 
the  course  in  civics  is  a  part  of  the  course  in  American  history, 
and  is  required  for  graduation. 

Between  the  two  extremes  represented  by  these  localities 
there  are  varying  conditions,  but  in  the  large  majority  of  the 
schools  where  the  subject  is  taught  at  all  it  is  given  as  an 
adjunct  of  history.  As  far  as  statistics  can  be  gathered,  it 
may  be  stated  that  approximately  one  fourth  of  our  secondary 
schools  give  no  training  in  civics  at  all,  about  one  half  com- 
bine it  with  American  history,  and  about  one  fourth  give  a 
separate  course  in  it. 

At  the  present  time  a  Committee  of  Five  of  the  American 
Historical  Association  is  working  on  a  revision  of  some  of  the 
recommendations  of  the  Committee  of  Seven,  and  has  made  a 
preliminary  report  in  which  a  separate  course  and  a  separate 
examination  in  civics  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  high  school 


The  Social  Sciences  569 

course  is  recommended  as  required.  In  New  York  State  va- 
rious committees  and  civic  bodies  are  at  work  on  the  subject, 
and  the  same  is  true  in  many  other  states.  From  such  activity 
it  is  probable  that  much  more  substantial  courses  in  civics 
will  be  offered  in  elementary  schools  and  high  schools  within 
the  next  decade  than  have  ever  been  offered  before. 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING.  -  -  The  earliest  advocates 
of  the  teaching  of  civics  in  the  schools  had  in  mind  a  method 
of  instruction  which  should  give  to  pupils  a  knowledge  of  the 
framework  of  government  as  it  was  outlined  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  This  was  the  idea  of  Daniel  Read 
and  of  the  National  Teachers'  Association.  From  the  resolu- 
tions passed  by  that  body  in  1869  it  is  evident  that  it  thought 
that  instruction  in  civics  consisted  in  teaching  "  the  principles, 
the  structure,  and  the  history  of  our  Political  Institutions." 
Moreover,  the  study  was  to  be  taken  up  in  connection  with 
United  States  history,  and  for  this  purpose  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  appended  to  the  grammar  and  high 
school  histories  published  in  the  seventies  and  early  eighties. 
In  the  body  of  the  texts  almost  nothing  was  given  concerning 
constitutional  government  or  the  working  of  the  local, 
state,  or  national  institutions.  About  two  thirds  of  each  text 
was  taken  up  with  the  colonial  period,  and  the  emphasis 
throughout  was  laid  on  picturesque  narration. 

For  civic  instruction  the  method  consisted  in  giving  the 
pupils  the  Constitution  to  read  or  to  commit  to  memory.  No 
illuminating  material  on  the  actual  working  of  our  institutions, 
national,  state,  and  local,  such  as  could  have  been  found  in 
De  Tocqueville,  was  presented,  —  a  fact  no  doubt  due  to  the 
absolute  inability  of  the  teachers.  This  mere  "  cramming  " 
on  the  Constitution  was  felt  to  be  unsatisfactory,  and  though 
the  study  of  government  was  still  largely  conducted  by  such  a 
method  and  felt  to  be  indissolubly  connected  with  the  study  of 
United  States  history,  small  texts  were  published  in  the 
seventies  containing  the  clauses  of  the  Constitution  with 


570  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

comments  on  them.  Such  texts  were  not  generally  put  in  the 
hands  of  the  pupils,  but  were  of  aid  to  the  teacher.  This 
method  of  study  of  the  dry  bones  of  our  institutions  con- 
tinued until  the  middle  eighties,  when  Jesse  Macy  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Iowa  published  his  small  text  entitled  Our  Govern- 
ment. This  was  an  attempt  by  a  competent  writer  to  change 
the  prevailing  method  of  instruction  in  government,  and  to 
put  interest  and  life  into  the  mere  framework  by  showing  the 
actual  workings.  Attention  was  not  confined  to  the  national 
government,  as  had  been  the  almost  general  custom  in  the  past, 
but  considerable  time  was  given  to  the  consideration  of  local 
and  state  governments.  In  1888,  with  the  appearance  of 
Bryce's  American  Commonwealth,  the  revolutionizing  of  the 
methods  of  instruction  was  made  possible.  With  this  monu- 
mental work  on  our  government  in  its  actual  workings  before 
them,  the  writers  of  school  texts  began  gradually  to  change 
their  methods  of  treatment.  Slowly  and  almost  impercepti- 
bly the  texts  on  civics  began  to  treat  of  actual  government. 
The  committing  to  memory  of  the  Constitution  and  the  dry 
commentary  on  its  clauses  began  to  give  way  to  a  study  of 
government  as  actually  carried  on. 

Such  a  change  in  method,  however,  was  not  by  any  means 
general.  In  most  of  the  schools,  grammar  as  well  as  high,  the 
average  instruction  given  was  usually  nothing  more  than  a 
mere  "  cramming  "  on  the  Constitution.  Texts  still  continued 
to  be  written  which  were  nothing  except  dry  commentaries  on 
the  clauses  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  texts  determined  the 
methods  of  instruction.  It  was  only  in  a  few  of  the  most 
progressive  schools  that  good  instruction  in  civics  was  given. 

Meanwhile  a  very  decided  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
character  of  the  textbooks  on  United  States  history.  More 
and  more  space  was  given  to  the  constitutional  and  institu- 
tional aspects,  and  the  idea  was  thus  perpetuated  that  all 
necessary  instruction  in  civics  could  be  given  through  the 
medium  of  history  —  a  separate  text  or  course  for  civics  not 


The  Social  Sciences  571 

being  considered  necessary.  This  method  of  instruction  in 
the  grammar  schools  and  high  schools  was  favored  because  it 
"  saved  time  "  and  because  of  the  conditions  surrounding 
college  entrance  examinations  for  which  the  high  schools 
largely  prepared.  Most  of  the  colleges  gave  either  very  indif- 
ferent instruction  in  government  themselves,  or  none  at  all.  and 
had  taken  no  steps  toward  demanding  a  knowledge  of  civics  for 
entrance.  This  prevailing  method  of  instruction  gave  to  the 
pupils  scarcely  anything  more  than  a  knowledge  of  constitu- 
tional history.  This  was  to  a  certain  extent  encouraged  by  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Seven  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  1899,  for  though  recommending  a  separate  text 
and  course  in  civics  it  left  it  open  for  the  schools  to  believe  that 
the  study  could  well  be  carried  on  without  such. 

Objections  to  this  method  of  instruction  were  frequently 
heard  from  teachers  and  superintendents,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  Committee  on  Civics  of  the  New  England  History  Teachers' 
Association,  1909,  and  the  Committee  of  Five  of  the  American 
Political  Science  Association,  1909,  made  their  reports  that 
the  issue  was  squarely  made  that  instruction  in  civics  in 
schools  should  be  on  the  actual  working  of  our  government  and 
that  the  methods  to  be  employed  should  be  such  as  to  give 
something  more  than  constitutional  history,  and  should  be 
through  the  medium  of  a  separate  course.  The  Report  of  the 
Committee  of  Five  of  the  American  Historical  Association  on  the 
revision  of  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Seven,  1910,  seems 
to  agree  with  the  reports  of  the  t\vo  committees  mentioned 
above. 

Some  schools  already  have  in  operation  distinct  courses  in 
civics,  though  in  the  larger  number  of  schools  throughout  the 
country  the  older  methods  of  instruction  still  prevail.  In  those 
schools  where  the  separate  course  is  given  there  are  two  ways  in 
which  it  is  conducted  :  (i)  in  some  the  course  comes  after  the 
course  in  United  States  history,  and  (2)  in  others  it  is  con- 
ducted parallel  with  it.  Those  who  favor  the  first  method 


572  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

maintain  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  pupil  to  know  the  history 
before  he  is  able  to  understand  the  government  in  its  actual 
working  at  the  present  time ;  and  those  who  favor  the  second 
say  that  by  the  parallel  method  much  time  is  saved  by  avoid- 
ing unnecessary  repetition  and  that  a  better  opportunity  is 
offered  for  taking  up  current  topics  because  of  the  longer 
period  during  which  the  course  is  studied. 

In  the  best  high  schools  of  to-day  a  course  in  civics  is  given 
which  has  devoted  to  it  5  hours  a  week  for  20  weeks  or  3  hours 
a  week  for  40  weeks.  A  substantial  text  is  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  students,  and  also  a  fair  number  of  special  works  on  the 
federal,  state,  and  local  government,.  Not  only  is  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  studied,  but  its  institutions  are 
compared  with  those  of  European  governments  —  the  most 
effective  results  being  derived  from  comparison.  Each  student 
is  called  upon  to  present  reports  both  oral  and  written  on 
topics  connected  with  this  comparative  study. 

In  connection  with  the  course  a  close  study  of  the  newspapers 
and  magazines  is  made  for  current  political  happenings,  and 
the  students  are  called  upon  to  give  three-minute  extem- 
poraneous talks  on  political  events  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  material  gathered  is  put  on  bulletin  boards,  pasted  in 
scrapbooks,  and  used  in  civic  and  debating  clubs.  Govern- 
ment reports,  journals,  legal  forms,  and  material  of  an  allied 
nature  are  consulted  in  the  libraries.  Visits  are  made  to 
the  meetings  of  legislative  bodies,  courts,  and  committees. 
Though  the  course  outlined  above  is  far  from  being  in  general 
use,  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  common. 

The  activities  of  the  National  Municipal  League  have  been 
responsible  for  the  introduction  in  some  city  schools  of  special 
courses  in  municipal  government.  Sometimes  this  course  is 
placed  in  the  last  grade  of  the  grammar  school  or  the  first  year 
of  the  high  school.  The  method  of  teaching  is  largely  induc- 
tive. The  pupil  is  called  upon  to  look  about  him  for  answers 
to  certain  questions  given  by  the  teacher  and  to  come  to  the 


The  Social  Sciences  573 

class  prepared  to  report.  The  pupil  in  a  way  is  thus  the  maker 
of  his  own  textbook.  This  simple  course  of  instruction  is 
supplemented  in  the  last  year  of  the  high  school  with  older 
pupils  by  studying  the  causes  for  the  failures  and  successes  of 
municipal  government  at  home  and  abroad. 

In  the  most  modern  methods  of  teaching  civics,  the  idea  that 
the  subject  should  be  used  to  teach  patriotism  and  to  drag  out 
moral  lessons  has  been  abandoned.  The  aim  has  been  reduced 
to  the  purely  practical  one  of  developing  good  citizens, 
intelligent  as  to  their  duties,  knowing  wherein  the  government 
is  good  or  bad,  and  able  by  virtue  of  their  intelligence  concern- 
ing better  conditions  prevailing  elsewhere  to  try  to  improve 
their  own  institutions. 

ECONOMICS 

INTRODUCTION  INTO  THE  SCHOOLS.  — This  subject 
has  been  denned  as  the  study  of  that  which  pertains  to  the 
satisfaction  of  man's  material  needs, — -the  production,  preser- 
vation, and  distribution  of  wealth.  As  such  it  would  seem 
fundamental  that  the  study  of  economics  should  find  a  place 
in  those  institutions  which  prepare  children  to  become  citi- 
zens,—  the  elementary  and  high  schools.  Some  of  the  truths 
of  economics  are  so  simple  that  even  the  youngest  of  school 
children  may  be  taught  to  understand  them.  As  a  school 
study,  however,  economics  up  to  the  present  time  has  made  far 
less  headway  than  civics.  Its  introduction  as  a  study  even  in 
the  colleges  was  so  gradual  and  so  retarded  that  it  could 
scarcely  be  expected  that  educators  would  favor  its  introduc- 
tion in  the  high  schools. 

Previous  to  the  appearance,  in  1894,  of  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  of  Ten  of  the  National  Education  Association  on 
Secondary  Education,  there  had  been  much  discussion  on  the 
educational  value  of  the  study  of  economics. 

Since  then  the  subject  of  economics  has  gradually  made 
its  appearance  in  the  curricula  of  many  eastern  high  schools. 


574  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

It  has  been  made  an  elective  subject  of  examination  for 
graduation  from  high  schools  by  the  Regents  of  New  York 
State,  and  for  admission  to  college  by  Harvard  University. 
Its  position  as  an  elective  study,  however,  has  not  led  many 
students  to  take  it  except  in  commercial  high  schools,  because 
in  general  it  may  not  be  used  for  admission  to  the  colleges. 

Its  great  educational  value,  its  close  touch  with  the  pupils' 
everyday  life,  and  the  possibility  of  teaching  it  to  pupils  of 
high  school  age  are  now  generally  recognized.  A  series  of 
articles  in  the  National  Education  Association's  Proceedings 
for  1901,  by  Spiers,  Gun  ton,  Halleck,  and  Vincent  bear  witness 
to  this.  The  October,  1910,  meeting  of  the  New  England 
History  Teachers'  Association  was  devoted  entirely  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  Teaching  of  Economics  in  Secondary  Schools, 
and  Professors  Taussig  and  Haynes  reiterated  views  already 
expressed.  Representatives  of  the  recently  developed  com- 
mercial and  trade  schools  expressed  themselves  in  its  favor. 

Suitable  textbooks  in  the  subject  for  secondary  schools  have 
not  kept  pace  with  its  spread  in  the  schools.  Laughlin, 
Macvane,  and  Walker  published  books  somewhat  simply 
expressed ;  but  later  texts  have  been  too  collegiate  in  character. 
There  is  still  needed  a  text  written  with  the  secondary  school 
student  constantly  in  mind,  and  preferably  by  an  author  who 
has  been  dealing  with  students  of  secondary  school  age.  The 
methods  of  teaching  mutatis  mutandis  have  been  much  the 
same  as  those  pursued  in  civics.  The  mere  cramming 
of  the  text  found  in  the  poorest  schools  gives  way  in  the  best 
schools  to  a  study  and  observation  of  actual  conditions  in  the 
world  of  to-day.  In  the  latter  schools  the  teacher  has  been 
well  trained  in  the  subject,  whereas  in  the  former  it  is  given 
over  only  too  frequently  to  teachers  who  know  little  more 
about  it  than  that  which  is  in  the  text. 


The  Social  Sciences  575 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  aspect  of  history  —  cultural,  political,  institutional,  etc.  — 
is  preferable  for  high  school  study  ? 

2.  To  what  extent  is  the  source  material  method  desirable  or  possible 
in  the  high  school  ? 

3.  What  are  the  purposes  of  the  study  of  history  in  the  high  school  ? 

4.  To  what  extent  should  the  study  of  history  be  connected  with  the 
study  of  civics  ?     How  can  this  connection  be  best  made  ? 

5.  What  relations  can  or  should  be  established  between  the  study  of 
history  of  the  United  States  and  the  study  of  economic  problems  ? 

6.  What  are  the  best  materials  of  study  for  United  States  history  ? 

7.  Can  "critical  study"  of  historical  problems  be  developed  in  the 
high  school  ? 

8.  What  are  the  tests  or  the  principles  involved  in  a  good  history  text- 
book for  high  school  ? 

9.  What  are  the  principles  involved  in  an  examination  in  history  ? 
What  kind  of  questions  should  be  asked  ? 

10.  What  advance  was  made  in  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Seven 
upon  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  ? 

11.  What  advance  upon  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Seven,  by 
subsequent  reports  ? 

12.  What  advantages  are  involved  in  the  new  classification  or  de- 
limitation of  historic  periods  ? 

13.  What  kind  of  history  should  be  taught  in  the  new  vocational 
high  schools  ? 

14.  What  are  the  merits  of  the  course  of  studies  followed  in  the 
European  secondary  schools  as  compared  with  those  of  the  American 
high  school  ? 

15.  What  are  the  merits  of  the  methods  used  in  European  schools  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  American  high  school  ?     Of  the  textbooks  ? 

1 6.  To  what  extent  should  visual  aids  to  teaching  be  used  in  history  ? 

17.  What  topics  in  the  subject  of  economics  can  be  treated  in  the 
high  school  ? 

1 8.  What  methods  and  materials  of  study  are  appropriate  for  high 
school  work  in  economics  ? 

IQ.    Outline  a  course  of  study  in  economics  for  the  high  school,  using 
local  materials  and  problems  as  a  basis.     For  civics. 

20.  How  can  the  study  of  civics  be  made  to  function  directly  in  train- 
ing for  citizenship  ? 

21.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  interesting  the 
pupil  directly  in  local  political,  economic,  and  civic  problems  ? 


576  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

REFERENCES 

History 

ALLEN,  J.  W.     The  Place  of  History  in  Education.     London,  1909. 
ANDREWS,  C.  M.,  GAMBRILL,  J.  M.,  TALL,  LIDA  L.    A  Bibliography  of 

History  for  Schools  and  Libraries.     New  York,  1910. 
Association  of  History  Teachers  of  the  Middle  States  and  Maryland. 

Annual  Minutes,  from  1903. 

BARNES,  MARY  SHELDON.    Studies  in  Historical  Method.     Boston,  1896. 
BLISS,  W.  F.     History  in  the  Elementary  Schools;   Methods,  Courses  of 

Study,  Bibliographies.     New  York,  1911. 
BOURNE,  H.  E.     The  Teaching  of  History  and  Civics  in  the  Elementary 

and  Secondary  School.     New  York,  1910. 

Committee  of  Eight,  Report  of  the,  to  the  American  Historical  Associa- 
tion.   The  Study  of  History  in  the  Elementary  School.    New  York,  1909. 
Committee  of  Five,  Report  of  the,  to  the  American  Historical  Association. 

The  Study  of  History  in  Schools.     New  York,  1911. 
Committee  of  Seven,  American  Historical  Association.     The  Study  of 

History  in  Schools.     New  York,  1899. 
England  Board  of  Education.     Teaching  of  History  in  Secondary  Schools. 

London,  1908. 
FARRINGTON,  F.  E.     French  Secondary  Schools,  Chap.  XI.     New  York, 

1910. 
HEARNSHAW,  F.  J.  C.     Teaching  of  History  by  Means  of  Local  Records. 

Educ.  Times  (London),  Vol.  LXV,  February,  1912,  pp.  59-60.     Con- 
tains also  Report  of  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Historical  Association. 
HINSDALE,  B.  A.     How  to  Study  and  Teach  History.     New  York,  1893. 
Historical  Association.     Leaflets.     London,  from  1906. 
Indiana  University  Bulletin.     History  Teaching  in  High  School.     Bloom- 

ington,  1909. 
JAGER,  O.      The  Teaching  of  History.     Tr.  by  H.  J.  Chaytor.     London, 

1908. 

JOHNSON,  H.    History  in  the  Elementary  School.     New  York,  1908. 
KEATINGE,  M.  W.     Studies  in  the  Teaching  of  History.     London,  1910. 
LANGLOIS,  C.  V.     Manuel  de  Bibliographie  historiquc.     Paris,  1901-1904. 

and  SEIGXOBOS,  C.     Introduction  to  the  Study  of  History.     Tr.  by 

G.  G.  Berry.     New  York,  1898. 
MACE,  W.  H.     Method  in  History.     New  York,  1903. 
McMuRRY,  C.  A.     Special  Method  in  History.     New  York,  1903. 
New   England   History   Teachers'   Association.     Historical  Sources  in 

Schools.     New     York,     1902.     Syllabus    for    Secondary    Schools. 

Boston,  1904.     Various  publications  since  1897. 


The  Social  Sciences  577 

New  York  State  Education  Department  Bulletins.     Course  of  Study  and 

Syllabus  for  the  Elementary  Schools.    Syllabus  for  Secondary  Schools. 

Albany,  1910. 

North  Central  History  Teachers'  Association,  Proceedings,  from  1899. 
Report  of  a  Conference  on  the  Teaching  of  History  in  London  Elementary 

Schools.     London,  IQII. 

RICE,  EMILY  J.    Course  of  Study  in  History  and  Literature.  Chicago,  1897. 
RUSSELL,  J.  E.     German  Higher  Schools,  Chap.  XV.     New  ed.,  New  York, 

1905. 
SALMON,    LUCY    M.      Some    Principles    in    the    'reaching    of   History. 

Chicago,  1902. 

Civics 

ANDREWS,  C.  M.,  GAMBRILL,  J.  M.,  TALL,  LIDA  L.  A  Bibliography  of 
History.  New  York,  1910. 

BOURNE,  H.  E.  The  Teaching  of  History  and  Civics.  New  York,  1902. 
At  the  beginning  of  each  chapter  this  book  gives  extended  bibliog- 
raphies. 

SCOREL.     N.  E.  A.  Proceedings,  1899. 

WELLING.    N.  E.  A.  Proceedings,  1903. 

WYER,  J.  I.  A  Bibliography  of  the  Study  and  Teaching  of  History,  com- 
piled in  Volume  I  of  the  American  Historical  Association  Proceedings 
for  1899,  pp.  559-612,  particularly  on  p.  593. 

Sample  chapters  of  an  Outline  for  the  Study  of  American  Civil  Govern- 
ment, published  by  the  New  England  History  Teachers'  Association, 
also  have  good  bibliographies. 

The  published  proceedings  of  the  various  associations  mentioned  in 
this  article  contain,  in  addition  to  the  reports  referred  to,  numerous 
articles  on  civics  and  its  place  in  the  curriculum. 

The  Atlantic  Educational  Journal  published  during  1908-1909  a  bibli- 
ography of  history  for  teachers  and  is  going  to  add  to  it  material  for 
civics. 

Economics 

CLOW,  F.  R.  Economics  as  a  School  Study,  in  the  Economic  Stiidies  of 
the  American  Economic  Association  for  1899.  An  excellent  bibliog- 
raphy is  given.  It  may  be  supplemented  by  articles  or  addresses 
since  1899  which  have  been  mentioned  above.  New  York,  1899. 

COSSA,  L.  Introduction  to  the  Sludy  of  Political  Economy;  tr.  by  L.  Dyer, 
London,  1893. 

HAYXKS,  Jonx.  Economics  in  Secondary  Schools.  Education,  February, 
1897. 


CHAPTER  XV 
FINE   ARTS   AND   MUSIC 

ART  IN  EDUCATION.  —  A  study  of  education  in  its  earlier 
forms,  not  only  in  savage  communities,  but  in  a  civilization  as 
advanced  as  the  Athenian,  reveals  the  great  role  played  by 
the  arts.  Anthropological  investigations  have  confirmed  the 
obvious  educational  influence  by  showing  the  great  part  played 
by  the  arts  in  the  life  of  the  community  and  in  determining 
progress.  Psychology  adds  to  these  convictions  the  fact  of 
the  fundamental  character  of  the  impulsive  tendencies  which 
are  the  physiological  origin  of  the  activities  that  lead  to  the 
arts.  All  of  these  facts  are  opposed  to  the  common  assumption 
that  the  arts  represent  a  kind  of  educational  luxury  and  super- 
fluity. 

Classification  of  the  Arts. — Various  classifications  have  been 
made  of  the  arts,  —  they  have  been  subdivided  into  the  spatial 
and  the  temporal,  arts  of  rest  and  motion,  of  the  eye  and  the 
ear,  etc.  However  correct  for  their  own  purposes,  these 
divisions  are  educationally  defective  in  that  they  start  from 
art  products  rather  than  from  the  psychophysical  acts  from 
which  these  products  originate.  More  significant  from  the 
educational  point  of  view  is  the  classification  of  Santayana 
according  to  which  arts  are  distinguished  into  those  that 
spring  from  automatisms,  i.e.  organic  or  "  spontaneous  " 
movements  which,  when  rhythmically  ordered  and  accom- 
panied by  intensified  emotion,  themselves  constitute  acts, 
and  those  in  which  the  movements,  even  if  similarly  induced 
originally,  terminate  in  effective  enduring  modifications  of 
natural  objects.  The  dance,  pantomime,  song,  music,  etc., 

578 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  579 

belong  in  the  first  class ;  the  second  class  Santayana  terms 
"  plastic,"  including  in  it  architecture,  sculpture,  painting, 
and  design. 

Principles  underlying  Art  in  Education.  —  Anthropological 
and  historical  inquiry  have  fairly  established  the  following 
principles  :  first,  that  art  is  born  of  primary  impulses  of  human 
nature  when  the  activity,  whether  automatic  or  plastic,  has 
social  value ;  second,  that  this  social  value  is  conferred  by  the 
tendency  of  the  activity  or  its  product  to  spread  an  emotional 
mood  favorable  to  joint  or  concerted  action.  Otherwise 
put,  the  arts,  in  their  origin,  tended  to  contagion  or  com- 
munication of  an  emotion,  that  produced  unity  of  attitude  and 
of  outlook  and  imagination.  From  this  point  of  view,  no 
sharp  line  divided  the  fine  and  useful  arts  from  each  other. 
Any  useful  object  —  a  piece  of  pottery  or  of  weaving,  an  imple- 
ment of  hunting  —  that  provokes  social  reminiscences  and 
anticipations  attaches  contagious  emotions  to  itself,  and 
acquires  aesthetic  quality.  The  marked  distinction  between 
useful  and  fine  arts  is  chiefly  a  product  of  slave  labor  or  of 
commercial  production,  making  things  for  a  market,  under 
circumstances  where  the  factor  of  shared  emotional  life  is 
eliminated. 

Another  significant  trait  of  the  arts  in  their  simple  and  more 
natural  form  is  the  prominence  of  the  festal  element.  Tribal 
dances  are  the  background  out  of  which  music,  poetry,  and 
the  drama  all  gradually  differentiated.  These  pantomime 
dances  were  either  occasional  or  ceremonial,  i.e.  they  were 
either  community  celebrations  of  more  or  less  choice  episodes 
happening  to  attract  general  attention,  or  else  were  stated  and 
recurrent  celebrations  of  important  tribal  traditions  and  cus- 
toms, attaching  to  changes  in  the  season,  return  of  food  ani- 
mals, gathering  of  crops,  war  expeditions,  etc. 

Some  of  the  educational  bearings  of  these  considerations, 
psychological  and  ethnological,  come  out  conspicuously  in  the 
older  Athenian  education.  Music  (in  the  Greek  sense)  and 


580  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

gymnastic  were,  in  general,  and  in  many  of  the  details  of  their 
educational  use,  very  direct  outgrowths  of  the  role  of  the 
dramatic  and  communal  arts  of  more  primitive  societies. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  detect  in  Plato's  treatment  of  gymnastics 
in  the  Republic  and  the  Laws  the  fact  that  dances,  etc., 
originally  associated  with  industrial  and  military  crises  in  the 
life  of  a  people,  had  become  so  saturated  with  elements  of 
rhythm,  measure,  and  order,  and  with  social  memories  and  hopes, 
as  to  present  great  value  in  the  training  of  the  young ;  while 
music  was  frankly  a  vehicle  for  carrying  what  was  of  typical 
or  idealized  value  in  the  traditions  of  the  Greek  people,  by 
enhancing  their  emotional  value  so  that  they  would  deeply, 
though  unconsciously,  modify  the  character  of  children's 
tastes  and'  likes  and  dislikes  in  the  direction  that  reason  would 
later  consciously  approve. 

If  we  attempt  to  summarize  the  meaning  for  present  educa- 
tional practice,  of  the  facts  mentioned  in  this  brief  summary, 
the  following  points  stand  out  clearly : 

A  rts  are  Essentials  in  Education.  —  i .  There  has  been  great  loss 
in  relegating  the  arts  to  the  relatively  trivial  role  which  they 
finally  assumed  in  schooling,  and  there  is  corresponding 
promise  of  gain  in  the  efforts  making  in  the  last  generation  to 
restore  these  to  a  more  important  position.  Viewed  both 
psychologically  and  socially,  the  arts  represent  not  luxuries 
and  superfluities  but  fundamental  forces  of  development. 

Expression  precedes  Appreciation.  —  2.  Instead  of  aesthetic 
appreciation,  the  sense  of  beauty,  etc.,  coming  first  and  leading 
to  artistic  expression  in  order  to  satisfy  itself,  the  order  is  the 
reverse.  Man  instinctively  attempts  to  enhance  and  perpetu- 
ate his  images  that  are  charged  with  emotional  value  by  some 
kind  of  objectification  through  action.  The  outcome  inevita- 
bly is  marked  by  certain  factors  of  balance,  rhythm,  and  con- 
structive order,  and  by  the  function  of  representation,  i.e.  of 
recording  in  some  adequate  way  the  values  to  which  emotions 
cling.  The  sense  of  beauty,  or  aesthetic  appreciation,  is  a 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  581 

reflex  product  of  this  attempt  at  production.  A  product 
which  is  objectively  crude  but  which  represents  a  genuine 
attempt  at  embodiment  of  an  experienced  value  of  unusual 
emotional  quality,  is  more  likely  to  be  an  effective  means  of 
cultivating  taste  and  aesthetic  sensitiveness  than  the  presen- 
tation for  passive  appreciation  of  much  more  perfect  works 
produced  by  others.  The  latter  are  indispensable,  but  their 
function  is  to  serve  as  models  which  will  stimulate  to  apprecia- 
tion of  crudities  and  imperfections  that  may  be  refined  away, 
and  will  enlarge  the  emotional  images  out  of  which  personal 
expression  springs.  In  the  end,  the  great  majority  of  pupils 
are  of  course  to  become  appreciators  of  art  rather  than  its 
producers  in  any  technical  sense.  But  only  by  taking  some 
part  in  creative  production  (and  that  not  for  the  sake  con- 
sciously of  producing  beauty  but  simply  of  embodying  vital 
and  significant  feelings)  can  a  wholesome  and  natural  attitude 
of  appreciation  finally  be  secured. 

Social  Activities  furnish  the  Starting  Point. — 3.  The  social, 
or  communicable,  character  of  the  emotions  from  which  aes- 
thetic expression  naturally  springs,  emphasizes  the  values  of 
joint  experiences  and  actions  of  a  more  or  less  domestic  nature. 
Group  activity  of  a  joyous  character  celebrating  some  event 
or  fact  of  common  value  is  the  natural  soil  of  artistic  creation 
in  the  school  as  well  as  out. 

Artistic  Expression  Natural  to  Children.  —  4.  Expressive 
activity  is  also  especially  adapted  for  educational  use  in  that 
the  separation,  so  usual  with  adults,  between  the  utilitarian 
and  the  artistic  does  not  naturally  exist  for  these.  In  the 
absence  of  economic  pressure  the  measure  of  use  is  simply 
value  contributed  to  the  enhancement  of  individual  and 
group  life.  Cooking,  even  such  seemingly  utilitarian  things  as 
setting  a  table  and  serving  a  meal,  easily  take  on  for  children 
an  artistic  value  so  far  as  they  represent  a  consciousness  and 
commemoration  of  things  to  which  children  attach  a  vague 
social  significance,  all  the  more  potent  because  in  its  vagueness 


582  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

it  represents  the  mysterious  and  attractive  world  of  adult  life. 
The  separation  of  the  externally  and  technically  useful  from 
emotional  and  imaginative  enrichment  is  unnatural  psycholog- 
ical divorce,  and  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  arts  in  educa- 
tion is  to  maintain  the  natural  union  of  the  socially  important 
with  that  which  makes  strong  emotional  appeal. 

Literature  the  most  General  Art  for  School  Purposes.  —  5.  Liter- 
ature is  probably  the  art  most  generally  available  for  school 
purposes.  In  order  that  it  may  be  a  genuine  art  it  is  necessary 
that  it  be  presented  as  a  consummation  and  perfecting  of 
factors  which  the  child  already  appreciates  as  having  value. 
This  means  that  it  is  not  so  much  a  point  of  departure  for 
instruction  as  it  is  a  focus  in  which  other  factors  gather 
together  in  a  vivid  and  ordered  way.  Literature  is  not  to  be 
used  as  a  means  for  any  other  end  than  this  gathering  together, 
in  a  vital  and  readily  appreciated  way,  of  scattered  and 
inchoate  elements  of  experience.  It  is  not,  for  example,  to  be 
made  a  means  of  moral  instruction  or  consciously  impressing  a 
specific  moral  lesson.  It  is  ethically  important  simply  because 
it  presents,  in  a  form  easily  grasped  and  likely  to  be  enduring, 
values  which  are  themselves  felt  to  be  intrinsically  important. 
Any  attempt  at  definite  formulation  and  impressing  of  these 
values  and  the  kind  of  conduct  they  require  is  certainly  detri- 
mental to  the  literature  as  art,  and  is  very  likely  to  be  harmful 
to  the  moral  influence  which  the  values  might  exercise,  if  left 
undisturbed  in  their  proper  medium  of  feeling  and  imagination. 
The  same  principle  holds,  of  course,  of  methods  that  utilize 
literature  simply  as  a  means  of  teaching  grammar,  information 
about  the  history  of  literary  men,  antiquities,  or  any  of  the 
diverse  topics  which  have  been  hung  upon  literature  as  upon 
a  peg. 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING  ART.  —  Methods  of  teaching 
art  depend  upon  the  conception  of  art  held  and  upon  the  pur- 
poses for  which  the  subject  is  introduced  into  the  curriculum. 
If  the  purpose  is  to  interest  the  pupil  in  nature  or  to  develop 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  583 

the  power  of  observation,  or  the  power  of  coordinating  ideas 
and  hand  manipulation,  as  is  often  stated,  no  strictly  aesthetic 
purpose  is  involved  and  a  type  of  method  wholly  different 
from  those  adopted  for  the  development  of  artistic  apprecia- 
tion is  appropriate.  Again,  the  conception  of  art,  whether  it  is 
imitation  of  nature  or  the  expression  of  harmonies  of  form, 
tone,  and  color,  has  a  deciding  influence  on  the  type  of  method 
adopted. 

The  Two  Methods.  —  Individuals  vary  and  modify  the  de- 
tails of  their  methods  of  teaching,  but  all  art  instruction  can 
be  classified  under  two  heads  according  to  the  point  of  view 
and  the  principles  involved.  These  systems  are  radically  dif- 
ferent in  character,  affecting  the  entire  make-up  and  conduct 
of  courses  of  study.  They  are,  respectively,  the  academic 
(analytic),  the  structural  (synthetic).  The  academic  method 
is  a  reflection  of  the  professional  art  school.  Its  origin  may  be 
traced  to  the  later  Renaissance.  The  method  is  traditional 
and  scientific,  making  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  of  nature's 
facts  the  first  step  and  the  foundation  of  all  progress.  The 
pupil  learns  to  draw,  but  defers  expression  until  he  has  at- 
tained proficiency  in  representation.  The  process  is  imitative, 
and  the  standard  external.  The  structural  is  a  return  to  the 
natural  method  of  pre-academic  days.  It  was  the  method 
practiced  in  Europe  from  ancient  times  down  to  the  Renaissance, 
and  is  still  used  by  the  Orientals  and  by  all  who  are  independ- 
ent of  scientific  domination.  The  approach  is  through  struc- 
ture, —  the  building  up  of  harmonies  of  shape,  tone,  and  color, 
-  and  the  purpose  is  the  development  of  power  in  the  indi- 
vidual. Self-expression  begins  at  once,  involving  all  forms  of 
drawing,  and  leading  to  appreciation.  The  process  is  creative, 
and  the  standard  is  individual  judgment  as  to  tine  relations. 
The  Academic  Method. — The  academic  method  is  truly 
analytic,  teaching  the  pupils  "  to  see,"  to  gather  fact  upon 
fact,  to  store  up  knowledge,  to  acquire  skill.  Its  analogue  is 
the  old  way  of  teaching  language  through  grammar,  rather 


584  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

than  through  use  of  the  language.  Self-expression  in  terms  of 
line,  tone,  and  color  is  deferred,  and  appreciation  is  only  a  by- 
product. It  brings  about  a  somewhat  sentimental  view  of  ex- 
ternal nature  as  the  source  of  all  art.  Whistler's  remark  that 
"  nature  is  seldom  right  "  was  a  blow  at  this  false  standard. 
Critics  of  the  academic  school  must  refer  all  excellence  to 
nature.  For  example,  they  interpret  Greek  art  in  terms  of  fact 

-  making  the  study  of  the  bodies  of  athletes  the  source  of 
artistic  power.     They  measure  Japanese  art,  not  by  quality, 
but  by  truth  and  perspective.     This  imitative  and  scientific 
system  is  derived  from  the  eighteenth-century  academies  and 
is  being  followed  in  our  modern  academies  of  art.     It  owes  its 
origin  to  the  late  Renaissance,  when  creative  power  was  feeble 
and  interest  in  the  sciences  dominant.     Because  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  artists,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  was  possessed  of 
boundless  curiosity  and  sought  the  secret  of  nature  with  toil- 
some persistency,  his  followers  concluded  that  the  pursuit  of 
truth  was  the  basis  of  art  study.     Leonardo  himself,  like  all 
the  masters  of  the  Renaissance,  was  trained  by  apprenticeship 

-  in  fact,  by  a  structural  method  — •  to  strive  for  quality  and 
mystery  and  power  in  expression.     His  genius  controlled  his 
scientific  instruction,  and  he  built  all  his  knowledge  into  his 
art  fabric. 

Continuing  the  traditional  scientific  scheme,  the  academic 
method  in  these  days  requires  that  schools  and  courses  of  in- 
struction be  highly  specialized.  The  relation  of  object  draw- 
ing, cast  drawing,  light  and  shade  work,  and  still-life  painting, 
to  mural  decoration,  house  furnishing,  costume,  handicraft, 
and  the  industries  is  not  very  clear.  It  is  often  forced  —  for 
example,  the  naturalistic  flowers  in  full  modeling  repeated  over 
wall  paper,  carpets,  and  china  with  no  reference  whatever  to 
any  principle  of  design.  The  processes  and  subjects  of  aca- 
demic teaching  are  good  in  themselves,  but  the  emphasis  is  in  the 
wrong  place.  The  tendency  is  to  make  art  in  schools  either  a 
pretty  accomplishment  or  an  adjunct  to  some  business  pursuit. 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  585 

The  Structural  Method.  —  The  structural  method  disregards 
the  theories  of  the  eighteenth-century  academicians,  and 
ignores  their  division  of  the  subject  into  representative  and 
decorative  art.  Instead  of  setting  up  external  nature  as  the 
standard,  the  action  of  the  human  mind  in  harmony  building 
becomes  the  foundation  for  study.  The  elements  of  space  art 
are  shape,  tone,  and  color,  the  whole  visible  world  being  re- 
vealed in  these  terms.  Education  in  space  art  follows  the 
analogy  of  music  and  literature,  beginning  with  structures 
of  a  simple  order  —  a  few  lines,  a  few  sounds,  a  few  words  — 
and  proceeding  onward  by  steady  growth.  Rhythm,  subor- 
dination, symmetry,  proportion,  tone  values,  color  schemes  are 
fundamental  to  all  the  arts,  at  least  by  analogy.  From  this 
point  of  view  design,  instead  of  being  classed  as  "  decoration," 
is  seen  to  be  the  very  primer  of  art.  Nature's  beauties  are 
cases  of  accidental  harmonic  structure,  to  be  copied  not  as  a 
mere  exercise,  but  because  they  are  beautiful  and  the  study 
of  them  increases  capacity  for  appreciation,  or  because  they 
suggest  motives  for  design. 

Synthesis  (self-expression)  is  the  center  of  effort,  with  the 
sciences  as  aids.  The  fine  arts  of  architecture,  painting,  and 
sculpture  have  been  developed  from  industries,  not  from 
nature  or  the  bodies  of  athletes.  The  beginning  and  the  end 
is  the  relation  of  forms  to  spaces,  not  the  copying  of  anything. 
Greek  art,  from  its  earliest  to  the  best  period,  is  an  effort  in 
composition  —  the  purpose  being  to  attain  finer  and  finer 
relations  of  line  and  space.  When  the  artists  turned  their 
attention  to  copying  facts  (human  bodies),  Greek  art  dis- 
appeared. The  same  may  be  said  of  Italian  art,  of  textile 
design,  and  of  Gothic  art. 

What  we  call  art  springs  from  a  desire  to  make  things  "  look 
well."  The  raw  materials  may  be  put  together  in  a  rude  way, 
for  mere  use,  or  may  serve  a  higher  use  by  being  put  together 
in  a  line  way,  satisfying  a  strong  desire  of  human  nature. 
This  finer  way  means  ability  to  make  the  best  choice  —  and 


586  Principles  of  Secondary  Ediication 

this  comes  from  the  trained  judgment.  The  history  of  art 
development  shows  that  whenever  the  workers  constantly 
improved  upon  proportion,  tone,  and  color,  there  was  growth 
into  fine  art.  The  simple  process  of  adapting  forms  to  spaces 
began  with  painting  on  clay  bowls  and  carving  the  handles 
of  utensils  or  weapons  —  and  ended  in  the  Greek  sculptures, 
the  Gothic  cathedral,  the  mural  painting.  There  was  no 
distinction  between  art  and  industry,  between  representative 
and  decorative  art. 

A  course  of  structural  art  teaching  begins  with  simple  forms 
of  creative  work,  the  pupil  drawing  upon  all  nature  and  all  the 
art  of  the  world  for  examples.  Representation  and  the  sciences 
become  aids  to  self-expression  rather  than  preliminary  exer- 
cises, as  under  the  academic  system.  There  is  opportunity  for 
immediate  application  in  industry,  handicraft,  home  decora- 
tion, and  costume. 

The  structural  method  of  art  teaching,  though  comparatively 
new  in  the  United  States,  is  not  new  as  a  principle.  The  old 
system  of  apprenticeship  taught  art  in  practically  this  form. 
Art  is  studied  in  this  way  in  Japan.  The  Japanese,  however, 
have  introduced  the  academic  system  in  some  of  their  schools, 
and  the  two  are  conducted  side  by  side.  It  is  significant  that 
designers  for  the  great  Japanese  industries  of  lacquer,  metal, 
and  textiles  are  trained  by  the  pure  Japanese  (synthetic) 
method.  The  art  of  Persia,  India,  Turkey,  China,  in  fact  of 
the  whole  Orient,  is  a  higher  form  of  industry,  developed  with- 
out copying  nature  or  historic  styles.  In  the  United  States 
the  art  teaching  in  professional  schools  has  followed  largely  the 
academic  method.  Normal  art  courses  for  the  training  of 
teachers  have  been  until  recently  thoroughly  academic,  the 
subjects  being  object  drawing,  life  drawing,  water-color  paint- 
ing (still-life,  figure,  landscape),  pen-and-ink,  perspective, 
anatomy,  etc.  The  inadequacy  of  this  and  the  feeling  that 
art  training  must  be  something  more  than  pastime,  together 
with  the  increased  interest  in  industrial  education,  have  forced 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  587 

synthetic  methods  into  many  of  the  normal  schools,  adding  to 
the  academic  courses  composition  in  line,  dark-and-light,  and 
color,  and  studies  in  art  appreciation. 

The  Two  Methods  in  the  Schools.  —  The  structural  method 
is  now  found  side  by  side  with  the  academic  in  many  schools, 
passing  under  the  name  of  design  or  composition.  These  two 
influences  are  reflected  in  the  art  teaching  in  the  public  schools, 
with  the  academic  in  the  ascendant,  though  evidently  losing 
ground  from  year  to  year.  The  old  rigid  copy  books  and  the 
type  forms  have  given  way  to  nature  drawing,  mass  painting, 
and  illustration.  These,  however,  tending  to  put  art  among 
the  pastimes,  cannot  hold  the  monopoly.  Design,  with  its 
stimulating  application  in  industry,  and  the  new  thought  of  art 
teaching  as  a  development  of  power,  have  introduced  new 
problems  and  caused  the  study  of  spacing,  dark-and-light,  and 
the  application  in  manual  training  to  have  more  prominence. 
In  the  yearly  exhibitions  of  school  art  the  academic  influence  is 
seen  in  mass  painting,  blotty  landscapes  in  color,  dictation 
exercises  in  landscape,  pose  drawing  (figures  not  in  action), 
illustration  in  crayon,  water  color,  and  cut  paper.  The 
structural  influence  appears  in  designs  (for  panels,  book  covers, 
pages,  posters),  massing  in  two  and  more  values,  landscape  in  a 
few  flat  tones,  illustrations  for  books,  color  schemes,  pottery, 
baskets,  bookbinding,  wood  and  metal  construction,  brush 
drawing,  pencil  drawing,  painting  in  flat  tones  with  or  without 
outline.  Wood  block  printing  upon  textiles  and  paper  has 
been  extensively  adopted  in  elementary  and  secondary  schools 
and  in  art  schools,  as  a  method  of  studying  composition  of 
pattern  and  of  making  experiments  in  color  harmony. 

DESIGN  AS  THE  SUBJECT  RELATING  FINE  ARTS 
TO  PRACTICAL  ARTS.  The  relation  of  the  line  arts  to 
the  practical  arts  is  made1  on  the  educational  sick-  through  the 
subject  of  design.  Tin-  form  of  the  line  arts  most  generally 
found  in  the  schools  is  that  of  design.  This  is  because  it  has 
both,  the  practical  and  the  artistic  relations  and  values,  and 
because  it  has  the  widest  appeal. 


588  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

As  related  to  the  arts,  design  usually  implies  the  planning 
of  the  form,  structure,  and  decoration  of  objects  so  that  they 
shall  satisfy  utilitarian  and  aesthetic  demands.  The  degree  to 
which  an  object  fulfils  these  demands  determines  the  excel- 
lence of  its  design.  The  conditions  which  meet  the  utilitarian 
demands  are  obvious ;  namely,  that  the  object  shall  adequately 
fulfil  its  purpose.  The  aesthetic  demands  are  more  complex, 
and  generally  include  utility  and  the  beauty  which  results  from 
pleasing  proportions  and  outlines,  appropriate  treatment  of 
material,  and  suitable  decoration. 

Industrial  Design.  —  In  the  constructive  arts  the  utilitarian 
demand  has  first  to  be  considered.  Until  this  is  met  as  com- 
pletely as  possible,  it  is  difficult  to  find  in  ornamentation  any 
permanent  enjoyment  which  at  all  compensates  for  the  dis- 
satisfaction arising  from  imperfect  fulfilment  of  purpose. 
Attempts  to  beautify  inadequately  planned  or  constructed 
objects  by  profuse  decoration  give  an  impression  of  effort 
misdirected.  For  example,  a  chair  which  is  uncomfortable  is 
poor  in  design.  Expensiveness  of  material  and  richness  of 
ornament  or  technical  excellence  of  construction  cannot  com- 
pensate for  failure  to  fulfil  the  function  of  a  chair,  a  failure 
which  prevents  lasting  pleasure  in  whatever  formal  beauty 
may  appear  in  the  details.  Closely  related  to  this  utilitarian 
consideration  is  the  pleasure  in  fine  craftsmanship  which  is  not 
content  with  a  crude  construction  barely  sufficient  to  meet  the 
needs,  but  which  demands  also  a  mastery  of  tools  and  processes. 
The  satisfaction  that  arises  from  the  contemplation  of  an  ob- 
ject which  adequately  fulfils  its  purpose  and  is  well  constructed 
readily  transcends  the  crude  stage  of  relief  because  a  need  is 
met,  and  develops  into  pleasurable  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  intelligence  has  shaped  raw  material  into  an  effective 
creation  by  means  of  clear  understanding  of  its  purpose  and 
perfect  mastery  of  the  materials.  This  contemplative  appre- 
ciation of  a  well-constructed  object  which  perfectly  fulfils  its 
purpose  is  an  aesthetic  satisfaction,  and  thus  in  industrial 


•Fine  Arts  and  Music  589 

products  utility  and  excellence  of  workmanship  appear  as  the 
primary  elements  of  good  design. 

Design  in  the  Fine  Arts.  —  The  conditions  which  satisfy 
the  aesthetic  demands  for  formal  beauty  appear  to  be  as  follows : 
Beauty  of  proportion  and  outline  is  one  of  the  chief  requisites. 
Experimentation  with  the  possibilities  of  different  relations  of 
proportions  and  areas,  for  example  in  placing  a  given  number  of 
windows  in  the  front  of  a  house  or  determining  the  position 
of  a  title  to  be  printed  upon  a  book  cover,  shows  some  positions 
to  be  so  much  more  pleasing  than  others  that  it  leads  to  a 
definite  choice.  An  analysis  of  the  results  generally  discovers 
a  consistent  thought,  not  monotonous  interrelation  of  meas- 
ures, in  the  case  of  the  pleasing  proportions  Experimenta- 
tion with  curves  shows  also  that  some  give  greater  pleasure 
than  others,  and  that  in  the  most  pleasing  forms  the  variations 
of  curvature  are  consistently  related.  Thus  the  standards  of 
excellence  in  proportions  and  outlines  appear  to  be  based,  not 
upon  fashion,  but  upon  universal  and  permanent  reasons. 
An  understanding  of  the  mathematical  nature  of  the  relations 
of  measures  upon  which  good  proportions  and  curves  depend 
is  not  necessary  to  an  aesthetic  enjoyment  of  these  forms. 
One  may  become  trained  to  discriminate  almost  unerringly 
between  fine  proportions  and  those  that  are  commonplace, 
without  knowing  why  the  results  are  pleasing,  or  that  any 
calculable  relation  exists.  The  response  appears  to  be  im- 
mediate in  terms  of  enjoyment,  and  the  adjectives  "  good  " 
and  "  bad  "  as  used  by  the  designer  with  regard  to  propor- 
tions and  curves  are  meaningless  except  in  terms  of  pleasure 
awakened. 

After  the  demand  for  utility  has  been  met,  the  next  impor- 
tant condition  of  excellent  design  is  this  of  good  proportions 
and  fine  outline.  The  opportunities  offered  by  the  arrange- 
ment and  refinement  of  necessary  parts  of  the  structure  itself 
should  be  utilized  to  the  full  before  ornament  is  added,  for  in 
the  placing  and  shaping  of  essential  features  lies  the  greatest 


5 go  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

possibility  for  beauty.  For  example,  in  the  instance  of  the 
chair  which  has  been  so  planned  as  to  fulfil  all  the  demands  of 
utility  such  as  strength  and  comfort,  there  is  abundant  oppor- 
tunity, without  transgressing  these,  to  vary  the  position  of 
braces  and  panels  and  the  shape  of  the  back  and  arms  and  legs 
so  that  pleasing  proportions  shall  result.  These  same  essential 
parts  may  also  be  so  modified  as  to  give  the  chair  a  consistent 
character  throughout.  It  may  be  solid  and  heavy,  or  light  and 
delicate,  and  yet  still  outlined  by  straight  lines,  or  it  may 
repeat  curves  of  a  particular  sort.  When  the  interest  of  a 
skilled  and  artistic  workman  continues  beyond  the  satisfaction 
of  utilitarian  demands,  and  he  lingers  over  his  work,  experi- 
menting with  its  proportions  and  outlines  till  they  show  the 
same  character  throughout,  the  object  gains  an  individuality 
which  is  the  basis  of  style.  When  the  object  is  one  of  a  kind 
which  the  builder  repeats  indefinitely,  he  is  able  to  embody 
in  each  successive  product  the  hints  gained  by  previous  experi- 
ments, and  gradually  to  perfect  a  type.  Where  many  artisans 
are  at  work  in  the  same  line,  a  still  more  thorough  exploration 
of  the  possibilities  of  a  given  theme  occurs.  Thus  styles  of 
architecture,  furniture,  metal  work,  etc.,  have  developed. 

The  same  interest  that  leads  to  utilizing  to  the  full  the 
possibilities  of  beauty  in  the  proportions  and  outlines  of  the 
necessary  structural  elements  frequently  influences  the  artistic 
craftsman  to  carry  the  manipulation  of  his  product  still 
further,  by  playing  with  and  echoing  its  nature  and  structural 
features  by  such  treatment  as  calls  forth  the  beauty  of  the 
materials;  for  example,  the  grain  or  polish  of  wood  and  the 
color  or  texture  of  metal,  sometimes  making  even  the  tool 
marks  a  decorative  feature,  as  in  hammered  metal  or  carved 
wood.  This  interest  finds  expression  also  in  ornamentation 
which  emphasizes  and  perfects  the  style,  or  symbolizes  the 
history,  use,  or  surroundings  of  the  object.  Such  ornament  is 
not  an  accidental  or  unrelated  addition  to  an  object,  but  an 
essential  expression  and  organic  part  of  it.  Such  decoration 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  591 

as  this  is  clearly  differentiated  from  that  sort  of  ornamentation 
which  results  from  inability  to  respond  to  the  stimulus  of  a 
perfected  idea  and  which  therefore  depends  upon  the  barbaric 
love  of  heterogeneous  collections  unorganized  by  any  domi- 
nating thought,  resulting  in  a  competition  of  interests.  Good 
design  in  ornament  is  not  assured  by  mere  technical  excellence. 
For  example,  an  Indian's  head  may  be  realistically  painted 
upon  a  vase,  but  neither  has  any  organic  relation  to  the  other, 
and  neither  enhances  the  beauty  of  the  other.  They  arc 
competing  artistic  interests  accidentally  juxtaposed,  and 
therefore  poor  in  design. 

Good  industrial  design  demands  that  an  object  adequately 
fulfil  its  purpose,  that  its  workmanship  be  skillful  and  its 
construction  sincere,  that  the  possibilities  of  beauty  in  the 
materials  and  in  orderly  and  consistent  arrangement  and 
shape  of  necessary  parts  be  utilized  to  the  full,  and  that 
ornament  where  used  shall  be  a  fulfilment  or  reenforcement 
of  the  idea  of  the  object. 

Relation  of  Design  to  the  Arts  of  Representation.  —  In 
painting  and  sculpture  the  utilitarian  demand  is  not  so  evident 
as  in  the  industrial  arts,  but  is  still  a  prominent  element  of 
excellence.  The  mural  painting  should  primarily  be  a  paint- 
ing designed  for  the  wall  in  a  sense  that  is  not  fulfilled  by  merely 
suiting  its  dimensions  to  those  of  the  wall  and  its  subject  to 
the  surroundings.  The  technical  treatment,  the  qualities  of 
color,  and  the  disposition  of  lines  and  areas  must  conform  to 
the  mural  idea.  Even  the  apparently  independent  easel  pic- 
ture is  not  at  best  advantage  if  it  must  be  made  with  no 
regard  for  its  permanent  location.  Statuary  is  usually  re- 
quired to  be  an  integral  part  of  an  architectural  or  landscape 
setting.  Some  correspondence  exists  between  the  subject  of  a 
painting  or  piece  of  sculpture  which  determines  the  kind  of 
response  it  seeks  to  awaken,  and  the  ultilitarian  purpose  of  an 
article  of  industrial  art.  The  appropriate  purposes  of  arts  of 
design  are  those  which  cannot  be  so  well  accomplished  by 


592  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

literature  or  music,  and  are  those  which  depend  for  their  effect 
not  only  upon  what  things  are  represented,  but  largely  upon 
such  an  arrangement  of  them  as  shall  result  in  the  formal 
beauty  of  consistently  related  areas,  balanced  masses,  pleasing 
flow  of  line,  and  harmonious  color.  The  artist  must  be  suffi- 
ciently master  of  his  facts  to  justify  his  courage  and  be  con- 
vincing when  he  uses  natural  material  for  his  own  creations, 
but  he  must  also  understand  design,  or  his  creation  will  lack 
the  quality  which  justifies  a  modification  of  facts  as  presented 
by  nature  and  distinguishes  a  work  of  art  from  a  photograph 
or  cast  from  nature,  namely,  that  a  work  of  art  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  a  human  idea. 

Place  of  Design  in  Education.  —  The  purpose  of  a  study  of 
design  in  education  is  to  develop  the  desire  and  capacity  to 
enjoy  beautiful  things,  to  establish  standards  of  taste,  to  raise 
the  aesthetic  sense  from  the  level  of  response  only  to  those 
accidental  stimuli  which  are  powerful  enough  to  arrest  and 
hold  attention  without  effort,  to  an  appreciation  of  what  gives 
increasing  pleasure  because  of  elements  that  are  permanent 
and  universal.  Such  training  should  result  in  new  sources  of 
enjoyment  for  the  individual,  and  in  a  higher  standard  of  in- 
dustrial products.  The  production  of  a  great  amount  of  raw 
material  is  not  so  valuable  an  outcome  of  civilization  as  the 
ability  to  convert  raw  material  into  the  highest  grade  of 
finished  product. 

Present  School  Conditions.  —  Design  has  a  large  place  in  the 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  of  nearly  all  countries  prom- 
inent in  education.  Individual  towns  and  cities,  even  in  the 
same  country,  often  vary  greatly  in  their  methods,  but  perhaps 
the  most  significant  and  general  difference  in  methods  in  the 
United  States  as  compared  with  other  countries  is  that  in  the 
schools  of  the  United  States  the  chief  emphasis  is  usually  laid 
upon  the  exercise  of  originality  from  the  earliest  years,  while  in 
most  other  countries  a  broad  acquaintance  with  the  best  design 
of  the  past  and  a  thorough  training  in  drawing  from  nature  and 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  593 

historic  ornament  is  generally  insisted  upon  as  a  necessary 
foundation  for  originality.  In  the  schools  of  the  United  States 
design  has  in  the  past  been  largely  in  the  field  of  ornament 
worked  out  according  to  the  principles  of  formal  beauty,  and 
used,  if  at  all,  as  decoration  applied  to  completed  objects. 
Probably  this  has  been  true  because  design  has  been  taught 
so  frequently  by  a  department  having  no  organic  relation  with 
that  which  has  taught  constructive  work.  On  this  account  the 
teachers  of  construction  have  emphasized  the  phase  of  design 
relating  to  utility  and  technique,  while  the  teachers  of  art 
have  given  chief  attention  to  that  relating  to  the  formal  beauty 
of  isolated  shapes.  Under  these  circumstances  the  relation  of 
ornament  to  structure  and  that  other  important  phase  of 
design,  namely,  the  possibilities  for  beauty  that  lie  in  the  dis- 
position of  structural  parts  even  where  no  decoration  is  used, 
have  often  been  overlooked.  The  study  of  unrelated  principles 
of  formal  beauty,  however,  is  gradually  giving  way  to  an  ac- 
quaintance with  concrete  problems  which  embody  all  phases  of 
design  and  offer  opportunity  to  give  to  each  the  consideration 
warranted  by  its  relative  value. 

The  study  of  design  usually  begins  in  the  lowest  grades  and 
continues  through  the  high  and  normal  schools.  The  prob- 
lems are  increasingly  those  related  to  actual  conditions  in 
school,  home,  and  community.  The  lines  of  study  may  be 
generalized  as  follows.  A  consideration  of  the  utilitarian 
conditions  which  the  problem  must  meet,  experimentation 
with  the  forms  involved,  to  discover  the  best  shapes  and 
arrangement,  appropriate  ornamentation  in  form  and  color, 
and  study  of  the  best  available  examples.  The  phases  of 
design  which  emphasize  simple  decoration  with  repeated 
forms,  as  in  borders  and  surface  patterns,  are  considered  as 
best  adapted  for  the  youngest  children.  Those  which  call 
for  original  judgment  as  to  utility  and  formal  beauty  and 
harmonious  color  demand  increased  maturity. 

In  England  and  in  the  leading  European  countries  emphasis 

2  Q 


594  Principles  of  Secondary  Ediication 

is  laid  upon  the  relation  of  the  arts  of  design  to  the  industries 
of  the  country.  The  present  trend  appears  to  be  toward 
developing  originality  in  design.  The  directing  idea  under- 
lying this  tendency  is  that  design  develops  best,  not  when  the 
mind  depends  largely  upon  its  spontaneous  activity,  but 
when  it  is  furnished  with  the  widest  possible  knowledge  as  a 
fund  of  suggestion.  The  acquaintance  with  the  best  examples 
and  the  training  in  drawing  as  a  means  of  securing  data  are 
much  more  thorough  than  in  the  United  States,  and  design  is 
more  intimately  related  to  the  industries  of  the  country.  The 
British  and  European  attitude  toward  the  teaching  of  design 
is  suggested  in  the  definitions  of  its  purpose  made  by  the  British 
Department  of  Practical  Art  in  1852,  which  have  not  been 
departed  from,  and  which  are  practically  true  for  other  Euro- 
pean countries,  (i)  General  elementary  instruction  in  art  as 
a  branch  of  national  education  among  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity, with  the  view  of  laying  a  foundation  for  correct  judg- 
ment both  in  the  consumer  and  the  producer  of  manufactures. 
(2)  Application  of  the  principles  of  technical  art  to  the  im- 
provement of  manufactures,  together  with  the  establishment 
of  museums  by  which  all  classes  may  be  induced  to  investi- 
gate those  common  principles  of  taste  which  may  be  traced 
in  the  works  of  excellence  in  all  ages. 

MUSIC  TEACHING  IN  THE  SCHOOLS.  —  The  motive 
that  has  placed  music  in  the  school  curriculum  has  been  pri- 
marily a  humanitarian  or  social  one.  There  are  two  reasons 
for  this.  The  first  is  negative,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  tech- 
nique which  the  practice  of  music  develops  serves  no  pur- 
pose .outside  the  art  itself.  In  this  respect  it  is  unlike 
drawing,  for  example,  which,  while  serving  as  a  basis  for  the 
fine  arts,  trains  the  eye  and  hand  in  ways  that  are  valuable  for 
the  scientific  student  as  well  as  the  artisan.  The  second  and 
the  positive  reason  is  that  music  lends  itself,  especially  in  con- 
certed work,  more  perhaps  than  any  other  human  form  of  ex- 
pression, to  arousing  and  expressing  a  common  social  feeling. 


JFine  Arts  and  Music  595 

For  this  reason  it  has  constantly  been  looked  upon  by  the 
schools  as  an  excellent  activity  for  developing  and  manifesting 
school  spirit. 

Recent  Tendencies  towards  a  Broader  Use  and  Appreciation 
of  Music  in  the  School.  -  The  tendency  in  modern  education 
to  demand  standards  and  scientific  results  for  what  is  done 
would  seem  at  first  glance  to  militate  against  the  increase  of 
musical  activity  in  our  schools.  This  perhaps  is  true  about 
secondary  schools  that  make  the  preparation  for  college  their 
sole  aim,  but  where  the  secondary  school  is  fulfilling  its  own 
task  in  our  educational  system,  the  tendency  to  broaden  the 
field  of  music  is  very  evident. 

Instrumental  Music.  —  First,  with  reference  to  new  work, 
a  recognition  of  the  value  of  instrumental  music  is  growing 
rapidly.  School  boards  are  buying  the  necessary  instruments 
for  carrying  on  successful  bands  and  orchestras  —  instruments 
that  are  essential  to  such  organizations  but  are  not  valuable 
from  a  solo  point  of  view  and  hence  would  not  be  likely  to  be 
bought  by  pupils  themselves.  For  instance,  Oakland,  Califor- 
nia, has  bought  some  $6000  worth  of  band  instruments  and  has 
over  twenty-two  amateur  bands  in  its  schools.  The  Los 
Angeles  school  authorities  are  reported  as  investing  $10,000  in 
musical  instruments.  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  at  the  other 
extreme  of  our  country,  has  a  number  of  the  necessary  orches- 
tral instruments  as  part  of  the  equipment  of  its  high  school ; 
and  simultaneously  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  especially 
in  the  West,  a  like  encouragement  of  instrumental  organiza- 
tions is  going  on. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Further  encouragement  is  given  by  the 
offering  of  credit  as  well  for  work  done.  Minneapolis,  for 
instance,  gives  credit  for  practice  on  orchestral  instruments  if 
the  pupil  takes  at  least  one  lesson  a  week  and  attends  two 
school  rehearsals  and  plays  at  school  functions.  Not  only 
this,  but  in  many  schools,  such,  for  instance,  as  in  Lincoln, 
Nebraska,  private  piano  and  violin  lessons,  when  meeting  the 


596  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

standard  set  up  by  the  school,  are  credited  as  part  of  the  re- 
quired work  of  the  school.  This  makes  it  possible  for  a  tal- 
ented high  school  student  to  keep  up  his  technique  and  at  the 
same  time  get  a  general  education. 

Parallel  with  this  widening  use  of  music  is  the  increased 
attention  being  paid  to  historical  and  appreciative  courses, 
having  for  their  main  feature  the  use  of  the  mechanical  means 
that  have  recently  put  within  the  reach  of  communities  so 
much  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music  that  would  not  have 
been  possible  a  few  years  ago.  The  study  of  the  folk  songs 
and  music  of  a  country  is  now  being  correlated  in  a  most  ef- 
fective way  with  its  geography,  literature,  and  social  organiza- 
tion, and  music  is  thus  serving  a  truly  cultural  purpose,  wider 
than  it  has  ever  been  possible  for  it  to  do  before.  More  inten- 
sive still,  but  limited  to  a  smaller  number  of  students,  are  the 
new  courses  in  composition  which  are  taking  the  place  of  the 
old-fashioned  harmony  classes  and  giving  opportunity  for 
talented  students  to  discover  their  ability  in  composition. 

Singing.  — -  While  the  work  described  in  the  above  courses  is 
greatly  widening  and  intensifying  the  influence  of  music,  the 
main  aim,  after  all,  in  the  teaching  of  school  music  is  to  develop 
the  singer ;  for  in  the  vocal  apparatus  we  have  an  instrument 
that  is  under  the  perfect  control  of  practically  every  one  and 
needs  but  little  work,  compared  with  the  playing  of  instruments, 
to  make  such  ability  effective  in  chorus  singing.  The  chief 
obstacle  for  the  singer  has  been  the  reading  of  the  musical 
notation.  There  is  little  doubt  of  the  prime  importance  of 
this  subject,  but  unfortunately  there  is  a  tendency  to  make 
skill  in  sight  reading  the  ultimate  test  of  musical  instruction  in 
schools.  The  accomplishment  of  such  a  standard  often  pre- 
vents the  necessary  practice  for  both  tone  quality  and  rendi- 
tion that  the  broader  view  of  music  teaching  would  demand. 
Not  only  this,  music  is  also  a  literature,  and  it  is  of  prime  im- 
portance that  students  who  have  spent  more  or  less  time  on 
music  study  in  the  schools  during  eight  to  twelve  years  should 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  597 

have  at  least  a  small  but  choice  repertoire  of  fine  songs  that 
they  really  know  how  to  sing  well,  and  so  thoroughly  learned 
that  they  will  not  be  dependent  on  the  printed  page  any  more 
than  is  the  concert  singer  or  player.  Unfortunately,  such 
work  demands  individual  attention  and  musical  capacity  on 
the  part  of  the  teacher,  and  where  much  of  the  work  has  been 
done  by  teachers  of  other  subjects,  this  artistic  side  of  music 
teaching  has  been  necessarily  neglected.  It  is,  however,  a 
hopeful  sign  of  educational  development  that  with  the  broad- 
ening of  the  scope  of  music  there  is  also  an  increasing  demand 
for  greater  aesthetic  values  as  the  result  of  its  study.  In 
view  of  the  practically  universal  scope  of  vocal  music  in  the 
schools,  the  consideration  of  the  methods  employed  will  deal 
primarily  with  this  aspect  of  the  subject,  especially  as  the 
part  of  the  work  that  deals  with  the  structure  and  notation  of 
music  is  equally  important  for  the  player  of  an  instrument  and 
the  student  of  appreciation  and  composition. 

Methods  in  School  Music.  —  Methods  in  music  teaching 
deal  with  two  kinds  of  activities :  (i)  What  is  necessary  for 
producing  the  music,  such  as  the  control  of  the  instrument,  or 
voice,  and  the  understanding  of  the  notation.  (2)  What  is 
done  under  the  term  of  "  nuance,"  popularly  called  "  expres- 
sion," and  the  slight  notation  that  indicates  it.  The  first 
may  be  said  to  deal  with  the  structure  of  music,  the  second 
with  its  interpretation.  It  is  obvious  that  the  first  application 
of  a  method  in  music  will  be  to  produce  tones,  following  which 
there  will  be  a  constant  effort  toward  control  for  expression. 
This  is  especially  true  for  the  instrumentalist.  Even  the  voice 
teacher  spends  the  first  few  years  in  what  is  called  "  voice 
placing,"  practice  for  producing  a  good  singing  tone,  before 
he  does  much  with  song  interpretation. 

In  teaching  school  music,  however,  this  order  of  activities  is 
reversed.  The  voice  in  most  children,  through  the  exercise  of 
speech,  is  already  under  wonderful  control.  So  the  aim  of 
school  music  is  not  to  produce  professional  singers  with  de- 


598  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

veloped  voices,  or  professional  players,  but  to  cultivate  a  taste 
for  music  by  good  singing  and  to  prepare  the  individual  to 
aid  in  the  social  uses  of  music.  Consequently,  it  is  better  to 
commence  with  rote  songs,  or  singing  by  imitation.  Two 
things  are  thus  of  special  importance  in  school  music :  (i)  the 
pupil  must  know  how  to  render  many  fine  songs  in  order  to 
develop  his  taste  and  appreciation ;  and  (2)  he  must  be  able 
to  read  from  notation. 

Interpretation.  —  Learning  songs  and  learning  how  to  sing 
them  expressively  in  school  is  largely  carried  on  through 
imitation.  The  pupil  is  required  to  match  or  imitate  the  model 
tones  given  as  well  as  the  style  or  way  in  which  the  songs  are 
sung.  Supporting  this  work,  the  thought  of  the  text  and  the 
character  of  the  melody  are  brought  home  to  the  student's 
mind.  Thus  his  feeling  for  the  thought  and  the  character  of 
the  song  aids  in  getting  the  quality  and  rendering  desired. 
Besides  this  work,  vocal  habits  are  developed  in  the  pupil 
based  on  the  distinction  between  chest  and  head  tones.  The 
former  are  what  the  child  or  youth  largely  employs  in  his 
play,  and  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  do  the  same  in  music. 
But  when  sustained  pitch  is  attempted  with  this  register  above 
B  in  the  middle  of  the  treble  staff,  the  tone  becomes  hard,  and 
the  vocal  mechanism  strained.  The  head  tone  that  the  child 
naturally  uses  when  singing  above  D  of  the  fourth  line  of  the 
treble  staff  is  clear  and  sweet.  Vocal  method  in  school  music 
is  largely  concerned  in  strengthening  this  upper  head  tone  and 
developing  it  downwards.  For  this  reason  most  teachers 
agree  that  scale  practice  and  technical  work  should  commence 
with  the  upper  part  of  the  voice,  with  the  head  tone,  bringing 
this  quality  down  as  far  as  possible,  and  that  the  lower  tone 
should  be  sung  softly,  developing  by  constant  practice  an 
automatic  control  of  the  voice.  Thus,  the  "first  method  in 
school  music  deals  largely  with  musical  interpretation,  and 
consists  in:  (i)  imitation  of  a  good  example;  (2)  attention 
to  the  thought  of  the  composition,  both  text  and  style;  (3) 
development  of  clear  head  tones. 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  599 

Structure.  —  We  turn  now  to  the  second  element  in  learning 
to  read  music.  The  instrumentalist,  by  the  time  he  has 
learned  to  play,  has  associated  the  action  necessary  to  produce 
the  tones  with  the  notes  on  the  staff  that  represent  these  tones, 
so  that  when  he  sees  the  note,  he  can  produce  the  tone.  He 
can  thus,  unfortunately,  especially  if  he  is  unmusical,  avoid 
the  necessity  of  thinking  music.  The  mental  process  of  such  a 
person  consists  in  thinking  the  physical  motions  necessary  to 
produce  the  tone  called  for  by  the  note,  but  not  the  tone  itself, 
which  he  only  hears  as  the  result  of  his  action.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  singer  has  no  definite  movement  in  his  throat  that 
he  can  associate  with  a  given  note  on  the  staff.  F  and  F  sharp 
feel  the  same  to  him.  The  singer  is  obliged  to  learn  his  nota- 
tion, not  by  connecting  it  with  the  actions  that  produce  the 
tones,  but  by  connecting  the  notation  with  the  way  the  tones 
sound.  The  first  few  tones  heard  tend  to  establish  a  key  to 
which  all  the  tones  that  follow  are  related,  the  task  of  the 
singer  being  to  associate  these  tone  relationships  with  the  nota- 
tion that  represents  them.  His  mental  process,  instead  of  being 
connected  with  the  physical  movement  necessary  to  produce 
the  tone,  is  a  thought  process ;  for  he  must  hear  mentally  the 
sound  that  the  note  represents  before  he  can  produce  the  tone. 

As  in  interpretation  the  starting  point  here  also  lies  in  imita- 
tion. Tone  progressions,  such  as  scales  or  simple  songs,  are  first 
learned  by  imitation.  These  are  then  sung  in  connection  with 
their  notation,  until  an  association  is  formed  between  what  is 
sung  and  what  is  seen.  Such  association  is  not  as  simple  as  it 
seems,  for  the  notation  of  music  presents  three  different  kinds 
of  tonal  relationships  :  pitch,  duration,  and  metrical  grouping. 
It  is  through  the  combination  of  these  three  kinds  of  relation- 
ships that  the  pupil  is  able  to  form  a  concept  of  the  musical 
movement  of  iiis  tune.  The  problem  here  is  essentially  the 
same  as  that  of  reading  language.  From  what  the  notes  in- 
dicate, the  pupil's  mind  must  be  capable  of  forming  concepts 
of  the  musical  movement  sufficiently  far  ahead  of  what  the 


600  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

voice  is  producing  not  to  interfere  with  the  even  flow  of  the 
music.  Unlike  language,  the  signs  and  notes  that  represent 
these  relationships  are  not  grouped  into  musical  units  as  let- 
ters are  combined  into  words  standing  for  the  same  idea  in 
whatever  combination  the  words  may  appear.  Every  musical 
unit  has  its  own  peculiar  combination.  The  music  reader 
must  think  these  musical  units  by  combining  the  separate 
relationships  that  go  to  make  them  up.  The  most  complex 
part  of  the  training,  and  the  one  that  requires  the  closest 
attention  in  the  methods  employed,  is  concerned  with  the 
problem  of  rapid  conception  of  the  tune  from  its  notation.  A 
musical  child  will  often  make  his  associations  between  the 
appearance  of  the  notes  upon, the  staff  and  the  movement  of  the 
music,  so  that  he  is  able  to  read  music  fairly  well,  without 
being  able  to  tell  definitely  the  separate  intervals  of  duration 
and  pitch,  representing  the  musical  thought. 

Key.  —  The  large  majority  of  people,  however,  need  help  in 
associating  the  position  of  the  tones  in  the  keys  with  the  notes. 
Such  a  device  we  have  in  the  famous  do,  re,  mi,  or  syllable  names, 
dating  back  to  the  eleventh  century,  and  attributed  to  Guido  of 
Arezzo.  This  association  is  made  possible  when  the  key  is 
established,  the  tones  of  the  scale  taking  on  certain  charac- 
teristics. Since,  therefore,  a  certain  syllable  is  always  sung 
to  a  certain  tone  in  the  key,  when  the  sign  for  a  syllable  is 
written,  it  suggests  the  relative  tone  in  the  key  it  represents. 
The  principle  underlying  this  use  of  the  syllable  names  had  a 
revival  in  France  under  the  leadership  of  Pierre  Galin,  a  music 
publisher  of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  who  indicated  the 
relationship  of  tones  by  numbers.  In  England  John  Curwen 
utilized  the  sound  names  attributed  to  Guido.  In  the  system 
thus  developed,  called  the  "  Tonic  sol-fa,"  the  fixed  pitch 
representation  of  the  staff  was  ignored,  and  the  first  letter  of 
the  syllables,  do,  re,  mi,  etc.,  was  printed  instead  of  numbers; 
for  example,  d,  r,  m.  The  spacing  of  these  letters  indicated  the 
duration  of  the  tones.  These  letters,  like  the  numbers,  drew 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  60 1 

attention  to  the  relationship  of  the  sounds  to  be  sung,  and  not 
to  any  given  pitch,  and  is  evidently  a  vocalist's  notation. 

The  American  methods  follow  the  English  usage.  Some 
places  even  adopt  the  Tonic  sol-fa  notation  as  an  introduction 
to  sight  reading.  But  the  ordinary  practice  is  to  use  the 
syllable  names  with  the  staff  notation.  This  brings  about  a 
complexity  that  does  not  exist  where  the  syllables  are  used 
with  the  Tonic  sol-fa  notation.  For  reading  by  note  requires 
a  student  of  harmony  to  determine  the  proper  relative  name 
from  the  fixed  notation  that  the  staff  represents,  especially  in 
modern  music,  which  tends  to  be  more  and  more  chromatic, 
and  makes  it  difficult  to  determine  what  the  exact  key  rela- 
tionship of  a  tone  is.  Another  difficulty  grows  out  of  the  con- 
stant use  of  the  Tonic  sol-fa  names,  especially  where  the  syl- 
lable names  have  been  too  slavishly  used.  The  tendency  is  to 
associate  the  tone  to  be  sung  not  simply  with  the  sight  or 
sound  of  the  name,  but  with  its  actual  physical  production,  so 
that  the  pupil  is  able  to  sing  the  tune  if  he  can  sing  sound 
names,  but  is  unable  to  think  the  tune  apart  from  the  names. 
In  order  to  avoid  this  difficulty  many  schools  use  numbers 
instead  of  sound  names.  The  objection  to  this  is  that  the 
number  names  do  not  lend  themselves  to  good  tone  production, 
and  this  method,  when  too  closely  followed,  is  open  to  the  same 
objection  as  the  use  of  the  sound  names.  The  chromatic 
tendency  of  modern  music  above  referred  to  is  making  these 
methods  less  and  less  effective. 

Interval.  —  Besides  thinking  of  tones  in  their  relation  to  key, 
we  may  think  of  them  as  determined  by  their  distance  from 
each  other  as  intervals  of  seconds,  thirds,  and  fourths  hav- 
ing certain  common  characteristics.  When  this  has  been 
thoroughly  grasped,  one  is  enabled  to  sing  these  distances  by 
thinking  the  nature  of  the  interval.  Mr.  Samuel  Cole  of  the 
New  England  Conservatory  in  his  sight  singing  course  has 
given  specific  names  for  each  interval.  By  always  using  the 
name  with  the  interval  whenever  it  occurs,  associations  are 


602  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

formed  between  the  interval  character  of  tones  and  the  name, 
so  that,  when  the  interval  name  is  thought,  the  tones  occur  to 
the  mind. 

Rhythm.  —  The  teaching  of  duration  and  time  grouping  of 
tones  does  not  present  such  a  variety  in  the  methods  employed. 
The  demand  on  the  pupil,  unlike  that  of  thinking  pitch  rela- 
tions, is  identical  for  both  singer  and  player.  A  few  fundamen- 
tal differences  in  tone  lengths  are  used  over  and  over,  whatever 
the  key,  although  confusion  is  caused  to  young  students  by 
changes  in  the  note  used  to  represent  the  beat.  This  diffi- 
culty is  being  reduced,  there  being  a  tendency  among  pub- 
lishers to  use  uniformly  a  quarter  note  to  represent  the  beat 
in  simple  time.  Besides  beating  the  time,  other  physical  move- 
ments for  strengthening  the  feeling  for  pulse  in  music  are  being 
employed  in  a  more  varied  way. 

In  Europe  much  interest  has  been  awakened  by  the  work  of 
M.  Jacques  Dalcroze,  who  has  developed  a  remarkable  feeling 
for  rhythmic  character  through  dancing  and  gesture.  Move- 
ments of  the  march  and  folk  dance  are  advocated  for  develop- 
ing rhythmic  feeling  as  a  support  for  musical  work. 

Present  Procedure.  —  The  pressure  of  more  and  more  studies 
in  the  school  is  tending  to  lessen  the  time  given  to  singing.  A 
fair  average  allotted  to  this  subject  is  one  hour  a  week.  This 
is  sometimes  given  in  two  half  hours,  sometimes  in  fifteen- 
minute  periods.  This  hour  is  often  supplemented  by  another 
period  of  music  work  and  general  exercises.  The  music  study 
period  generally  commences  with  some  breathing  exercises, 
followed  by  scale  and  vocal  practice.  Then  technical  matter 
pertaining  to  notation  is  followed  by  reading  new  music  or 
exercises,  and  the  lesson  ends  with  a  review  of  familiar  songs. 

In  the  first  stages,  whether  in  elementary  or  high  schools, 
learning  songs  by  imitation,  or  "  rote  singing,"  as  it  is  called,  is 
largely  emphasized,  and  in  some  schools  this  is  carried  on  in 
diminishing  extent  through  subsequent  grades.  This  makes  it 
possible  to  introduce  a  great  deal  of  excellent  music,  which 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  603 

might  otherwise  be  too  difficult,  to  read.  On  the  other  hand, 
those  schools  employing  sight  reading  do  little  rote  work  after 
the  first  year,  paying  much  more  attention  to  the  singing  of 
exercises  intended  to  improve  sight  reading.  This  procedure 
reduces  the  artistic  musical  material  used,  but  tends  to  increase 
the  proficiency  in  reading.  In  either  case,  much  depends  upon 
the  amount  of  individual  work  demanded  from  the  pupils. 
The  great  difficulty  in  accomplishing  any  thorough  teaching 
along  ordinary  lines  lies  in  the  fact  that  music  is  universally 
taught  collectively,  thus  reducing  the  individual  responsibility 
to  a  minimum,  so  that  students  can  go  through  years  of  school 
work,  and  at  the  end  be  unable  to  give  the  simplest  description 
of  what  they  have  done. 

New  Tendencies.  —  The  new  trend  in  modern  education  is 
bringing  about  a  decided  change  in  the  attitude  toward  the 
popular  teaching  of  mucic.  This  change  in  aim  puts  the 
emphasis  not  so  much  on  what  is  taught  as  on  what  the  pupil 
can  do  with  what  he  is  taught.  The  point  of  interest  is  the 
pupil  rather  than  the  subject.  Under  this  new  influence  the 
teacher  aims  to  make  the  tone  quality,  the  dynamics,  the 
pronunciation,  and  the  musical  form,  as  to  both  pitch  and 
rhythm,  grow  out  of  one  central  thought,  —  the  expression  of 
the  feeling  suggested  by  the  words  of  the  song.  The  child 
must  sing  it  in  a  way  to  show  that  he  realizes  the  significance 
of  what  he  docs. 

But  this  is  not  all ;  the  child  must  not  only  make  the  musical 
thought  of  another  his  own,  but  he  must  have  experience  in 
expressing  his  own  poetic  and  musical  thought,  not  that  in 
so  doing  he  can  express  anything  of  value  for  others,  but  for 
the  sake  of  the  musical  development  both  in  thought  and  taste 
that  such  practice  brings  about.  It  is  parallel  to  theme 
work  in  the  teaching  of  the  mother  tongue.  This  attitude 
toward  music  treats  it  more  as  a  language,  and  seeks  to  make 
the  form  expressive  of  the  feeling.  In  making  a  melody  fit 
the  words  of  a  song  the  child  is  constantlv  led  bv  the  teacher  to 


604  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

observe  the  relationship  between  the  music  and  the  text. 
Such  effort  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  brings  about  the  most 
searching  observation  and  thought  with  reference  to  the  song 
he  is  producing.  When  such  song-making  is  the  collective 
effort  of  the  whole  class,  different  members  offering  their 
versions  of  the  wording  and  thought  of  their  couplets  and  their 
melodic  expression  there  is  a  much  more  intensive  exercise  of 
aesthetic  faculties  and  discriminative  thought  than  ordinarily 
takes  place  by  the  old  methods. 

Thus  the  new  methods  seek  to  develop  the  poetic,  imagina- 
tive, and  discriminative  power  of  the  pupil  in  his  relation  to 
music,  laying  the  basis  for  musical  appreciation,  which  after  all 
is  the  most  important  use  to  which  the  pupils  in  our  public 
schools  will  put  their  musical  education. 


TOPICS   FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1 .  What  evidences  are  there  in  the  life  of  the  adolescent  child  or  in 
the  activities  of  modern  society  to  indicate  that  the  art  interests  and  in- 
stincts are  fundamental  ? 

2.  What  are  the  anthropological  and  historical  evidences  that  the 
art  impulses  and  interests  are  fundamental  and  of  educative  significance  ? 

3.  What  activities  of  the  school  or  of  the  life  of  school  children  of 
the  adolescent  period  possess  educational  value  for  aesthetic  ends  ? 

4.  What  are  the  comparative  values  of  the  analytic  or  academic  and 
the  synthetic  or  structural  methods  of  art  instruction  as  revealed  by  a 
study  of  any  given  school  system  ? 

5.  Outline  in  detail  a  course  of  study  according  to  each  of  the  two 
methods  (analytic  and  synthetic).     What  are  the  educational  advantages 
and  disadvantages  of  each  ? 

6.  What  practical  methods  for  the  development  of  art  appreciation 
among  the  high  school  pupils  might  be  employed  in  your  own  commu- 
nity or  any  selected  community  ? 

7.  What  are  the  values  and  advantages  of  the  methods  of  teaching 
art  in  any  one  European  country  compared  with  those  in  vogue  in  America 
or  in  any  selected  American  city  ? 

8.  How  can  the  art  work  be  correlated  with  the  other  activities  of 
the  school  ?     The  music  work  ? 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  605 

9.   Work  out  the  exercises  of  a  course  in  design  relating  the  fine  and 
the  constructive  arts. 

10.  What  opportunity  or  demand  or  need  is  there  in  present  American 
life  for  instruction  in  design  for  secondary  school  pupils  ?     How  can  these 
needs  be  correlated  with  work  in  the  schools  ? 

11.  Trace  the  development  in  purpose,  conception,  and  method  of 
instruction  in  art  and  music  in  any  selected  school  system. 

12.  What  is  the  place  of  instruction  of  music  in  the  high   schools? 
How  does  it  differ  from  its  place  in  the  elementary  school? 

13.  What  criticism  or  suggestion  can  you  make  on  the  music  work  in 
any  selected  city  school  system  or  high  school  ? 

14.  What  place   should  the   modern   mechanical   methods  of   music 
representation  have  in  the  schools  ?     Give  advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages of  their  use. 

15.  How  can  instruction  in  art  and  music  be  used  as  a  means  to  moral 
instruction  and  character  building  ? 


REFERENCES 

Fine  Arts 

American  Art  Annual,  10  vols.,  1898-1013.  F.  N.  Levy,  editor.  Biog- 
raphies of  American  Painters  and  Illustrators  and  Crafts  Workers. 
Art  Schools  and  Organizations,  Art  Sales,  etc.  Xew  York. 

Art  and  Industry.  I.  Edwards  Clark,  editor.  4  vols.  Part  I,  1885, 
Drawing  in  Public  Schools;  Part  II,  1892,  Industrial  and  Manual 
Training;  Parts  III  and  IV,  1897-1898,  Industrial  and  Technical 
Training;  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.C. 

Art  Education  in  the  Public  Schools  of  the  United  States.  J.  P.  Haney, 
editor.  London  and  Xew  York,  1908. 

BARXES,  EARL.  Studies  in  Education.  2  vols.  Illus.  Stanford  Uni- 
versity and  Philadelphia,  1807. 

COLIN,  PAUL.  Enseignement  des  Arts  du  Dessin.  Paris  Exposition 
universelle,  1889.  Rapports  du  jury  intcrnaCl,  1890-1892,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  121-1248. 

COURAJOD,  Louis  C.  L.  Ilistoirc  dc  V  cnscigncmcnt  des  arts  du  dcssin  au 
XVIII  sicclc  ;  VEcolc  royale  des  elhrs  proteges.  8vo,  Paris,  1874. 

Dow,  A.  W.     Composition.     ~(\\  ed.     Xew  York,  1013. 

Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching  Art.     Publication  of  Teachers  College, 
New  York,  1912. 

GOTZK,  W.     Das  Kind  als  K Hustler.     Hamburg,  1898. 


606  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

GREAT  BRITAIN.     COMMITTEE  OF  COUNCIL  ON  EDUCATION  —  Science 

and  Art  Department.     Directory  with  regulations  for  establishing 

and  conducting  science  and  art  schools.     London. 
Instruction  in  Fine  and  Manual  Arts  in  the  United  States.     Statistical 

monograph;  H.  T.  Vailey,  editor.     Bull.  VI,  1909,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 

Education,  Washington,  D.C. 
Jahrbuch  fiir  den  Zeichen-  und  Kunstunterricht.     Edited  by  G.  Freise, 

Hanover. 
KERSCHENSTEINER,  G.     Die  Entwickelung  der  Zeichnerischen  Begabung. 

Munich,  1905. 

LEREZ.     UArt  et  la  Poesie  chezT Enfant.     Paris,  1888. 
Proceedings  Eastern  Art  Teachers'  Association  (now  Eastern  Art  and 

Manual  Training  Teachers'  Association).     6  vols.,  8vo.     Pub.  by 

the  Association,  E.  E.  Struble,  Sec.     Newark,  N.J. 
Proceedings  National  Education  Association.     Annual;    see  Reports  of 

Department  of  Art  Education.     Pub.  by  the  Association,  Winona, 

Minn. 

Proceedings  Western.  Drawing  Teachers'  Association  (now  Western  Draw- 
ing and  Manual  Training  Teachers'  Association).     16  vols.     Pub. 

by  the  Association,  W.  T.  Bawden,  Editor,  Normal,  111. 
Report  of  Examiners,  National  Competitors,  Board  of  Education,  South 

Kensington.     Annual.     Wyman  and  Sons,  London. 
School  Art  Book.     Monthly  magazine.     9   vols.     Illus.     Pub.    by   the 

Davis  Press,  Worcester,  Mass. 
SPARKES,  JOHN  C.  L.     Schools  of  Art,  their  origin,  history,  work,  and' 

influence.     In  Report  International  Health  Exhib.,  Vol.  8,  pp.  721- 

880.     London,  1884. 
Transactions  International  Art  Congress,  Vols.   1900,   1904,   1908.     Vol. 

Ill,  1908.     Pub.  by  the  Congress,  151  Cannon  St.,  London,  S.C. 
Yearbooks  of  the  Council  of  Supervisors  of  the  Manual  Arts.     7  vols.,  8vo. 

1901-1907.     Illustrated  Studies  in  Art  Education  by  various  writers, 

Pub.  by  the  Council;  address  E.  D.  Griswold,  Hastings-on-Hudson, 

N.Y. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  practically  all  the  large  cities  in  the  United  States 

and  England  publish  their  art  courses  of  study  for  the  public  schools ; 

various  cities  and  localities  on  the  continent  do  the  same. 

Design 

BATCHELDER,  ERNEST.     The  Principles  of  Design.     Chicago,  1904. 
CHRISTIE,  Mrs.  A.  II.     Embroidery  and  Tapestry.     New  York,  1906. 
COCKKRKLL,  DOUGLASS.     Bookbinding.     New  York,  1902  ;  London, 1906. 


Fine  Arts  and  Music  607 

CRANE,  WALTER.     The  Bases  of  Design.     London,  1898. 

DAY,  Louis  F.     Nature  in  Ornament.     2  vols.     London,  1894. 

Dow,  ARTHUR  W.     Composition.     New  York,  1905. 

JACK,  GEORGE.     Woodcarving.     New  York,  1903. 

JOHNSTON,  EDWARD.     Writing,  Lettering  and  Illuminating.     New  York, 

1906. 
Ross,  DENMAN  W.     A  Theory  of  Pure  Design.     Boston,  1907. 

Music 
The  Voice: 

BATES,  JAMES.     The  Care  and  Use  of  the  Voice.     London,  1907. 
ELLIS,  A.  T.     Pronunciation  for  Singers.     London,  1888. 
HENDERSON,  W.  J.     The  Art  of  the  Singer.     New  York,  1898. 
HOWARD,  F.  E.     The  Child  Voice  in  Singing.     New  York,  1898. 
JONES,  DORA  DUTY.     The  Technique  of  Speech.     New  York,  1909. 
MILLER,  FRANK  E.     The  Voice.     New  York,  1910. 
Rix,  FRANK  R.     Voice  Training  for  School  Children.     New  York,  1910. 
RUSSELL,  Louis  A.     English  Diction  for  Singers  and  Speakers.     Boston, 

1905. 
TAYLOR,  D.  C.     The  Psychology  of  Singing.     New  York,  1910. 

Methods : 

CADY,  CALVIN  B.     Music  Education  in  Outline.     Chicago,  1902. 
CRANE,  JULIA  E.     The  Manual  of  the  Music  Courses.     Plattsburg,  N.Y., 

1909. 

FARNSWORTH,  CHAS.  H.     Education  through  Music.     New  York,  1909. 
FORSEMAN,  ROBERT.     Lyric  Music  Method.     Chicago,  1914. 
GIDDINGS,  T.  P.     School  Music  Teaching.     Chicago,  1910. 
HARDY,  T.  MASKELL.     Practical  Lessons  in  School  Singing.     London, 

1906. 

NEWTON,  E.  W.     Music  in  the  Public  Schools.     New  York,  1909. 
New    York    State    Education    Dept.     Syllabus  for'  Secondary   Schools. 

Albany,  1910. 

Rix,  FRANK  R.     Manual  of  School  Music.     New  York,  1909. 
SMITH,  E.     The  Eleanor  Smith  Music  Course  Manual.     New  York,  1908. 
TUFTS,  J.  W.     A  Handbook  of  Vocal  Music.     Boston,  1896. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
HOUSEHOLD   ARTS 

PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  EARLY  EDUCATION.  —  In  the 

early  days  of  our  educational  history  the  work  in  practical 
arts  was  carried  on  at  home.  We  laud  the  "  little  red 
school  house  "  and  point  to  the  famous  men  and  women  who 
received  their  training  within  its  walls.  But  we  are  forgetting 
that  their  best  training  was  gained,  by  the  boys  in  shop  or 
field,  and  by  the  girls  in  a  home,  under  the  efficient  guidance 
of  a  homemaker ;  —  a  homemaker  who  realized  that  a  home 
was  the  place  for  the  rearing  and  training  of  children.  There 
was  no  need  of  Montessori  methods,  for  the  little  ones  learned 
to  button  their  own  and  their  brothers'  and  sisters'  pinafores, 
and  the  busy  mother  had  no  time  to  interfere  with  the 
child's  self-activity.  There  was  no  demand  for  industrial 
arts  in  the  elementary  grades,  for  the  children  participated  in 
the  simple  manufacture  of  the  materials  and  equipment 
necessary  to  their  daily  life.  The  girl  learned  of  textiles  in  no 
artificial  fashion,  but  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
whole  process  in  the  production  of  the  wool  which  she  made 
into  her  winter  dress.  She  understood  detergents  and  dyes, 
for  both  the  soap  and  the  indigo  blue  were  made  at  home. 
The  girl  spun  and  wove,  knitted  and  embroidered,  made  dresses 
and  the  lace  with  which  to  trim  them.  She  not  only  learned 
to  make  bread,  but  she  made  the  yeast  as  well.  She  under- 
stood food  preservation,  for  its  learning  was  motivated  by 
keen  necessity. 

The  "  little  red  school  house  "  then  fulfilled  its  function 
well  in  teaching  the  three  R's.     Pestalozzi  wished  the  home 

608 


Household  Arts  609 

and  the  school  to  be  supplementary  to  each  other.  His  school 
curriculum  included  some  work  in  the  practical  arts  because 
the  home  was  even  then  neglecting  these  industries.  Our 
schools  are  still  seeking  to  supplement  the  home,  but  the  in- 
dustrial processes  have  been  largely  removed  from  the  home 
and  the  home  often  converted  into  a  mere  lodging  house  for 
the  family.  This  striking  change  in  the  character  of  home 
life,  whatever  causes  have  contributed  to  it,  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  great  educational  problem.  It  accounts  for  the  ever 
increasing  paternalism  of  the  schools.  It  compels  the  schools 
to  introduce  carefully  planned  work  in  household  arts,  if  girls 
are  to  enter  life  well  equipped. 

BROAD  CONTENT  OF  HOUSEHOLD  ARTS. —  The 
well-being  of  a  democracy  demands  that  all  should  have  an 
opportunity  to  become  informed  upon  subjects  affecting  the 
prosperity  of  the  community.  A  knowledge  of  how  men 
and  women  earn  a  livelihood  is  essential  to  an  appreciation  of 
the  dignity  of  labor.  In  some  way  schools  have  failed  to 
make  their  students  realize  that  there  is  dignity  in  all  forms  of 
honorable  labor.  Any  educational  system  that  registers  such 
a  failure  among  its  products  is  fundamentally  unsound,  if  not 
actually  vicious.  Social  sympathy  and  stability  must  be 
secured  by  putting  work  in  its  proper  place  of  honor  and  by 
imparting  a  knowledge  of  the  conditions  that  govern  that  work. 
It  is  quite  as  important  for  the  girl  to  be  trained  in  citizenship 
as  for  the  boy.  We  have  come  to  recognize  that  development 
of  the  individual  is  not  a  matter  of  sex,  that  all  children  have  a 
right  to  be  well  born,  well  fed,  sheltered,  and  clothed,  and  that 
all,  regardless  of  sex,  must  be  given  the  opportunity  for  free  and 
full  development.  In  order  to  meet  present-day  conditions, 
the  girls  need  training  for  life.  Our  conception  of  the  scope 
of  household  arts  has  been  enlarged,  therefore,  to  include  the 
larger  housekeeping,  and  each  department  and  process  grow- 
ing out  of  homemaking  must  be  studied  as  affecting  not 
only  the  individual  home,  but  the  homes  of  the  community. 


610  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

House  sanitation  concerns  a  girl  in  her  own  home,  but  she 
must  be  also  concerned  with  the  housing  problem  of  the  ten- 
ement. Feeding  her  own  children  is  by  no  means  her  whole 
duty,  for  the  milk  and  other  foods  which  she  will  buy  come 
from  the  same  sources  that  feed  the  poor.  This  common 
source  becomes  her  responsibility.  Knowledge  of  food  values 
should  not  be  restricted  by  sex,  for  though  one  may  never  cook 
a  meal,  food  must  often  be  selected  from  a  menu  card  and  the 
proper  selection  is  of  greatest  importance.  The  course  which 
deals  with  cookery  only  becomes  trade  training  as  distin- 
guished from  household  arts  education.  Education  in  house- 
hold arts  is  for  a  business  which  lasts  as  long  as  life  lasts,  and 
through  it  one  should  find  a  purposeful  share  in  the  outside 
world's  work.  The  household  arts  prepare  girls  for  good 
citizenship  and  make  of  them  active  workers  in  bringing 
about  better  living  conditions  for  all. 

The  Purpose  of  the  Household  Arts.  —  Household  arts 
treats  of  the  final  distribution,  the  ultimate  preparation  for 
use,  and  the  consumption  of  the  earth's  products.  It  aims  to 
enlarge  the  sum  total  of  human  happiness  by  improving  the 
average  of  human  health  and  increasing  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  small  purse.  It  seeks  to  teach  values,  to  teach  methods 
in  the  preparation  of  materials  used  for  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter,  to  teach  the  principles  of  hygiene  and  sanitation.  This 
is  an  age  believing  in  prevention  rather  than  in  cure.  Realiz- 
ing the  soundness  of  such  belief,  household  arts  endeavors  to 
teach  the  child  the  principles  of  right  living,  so  that  she  will 
become  healthy,  happy,  and  efficient.  It  tries  to  teach  econ- 
omy in  the  home  management,  and  this  by  neither  skimping 
nor  doing  without.  It  seeks  to  teach  the  purchasing  power  of 
the  individual  purse,  not  so  much  in  the  number  of  pounds  of 
flour  or  beef  that  the  contents  of  the  purse  will  buy,  but  in 
what,  in  terms  of  caloric  or  food  value,  the  purse  holds ;  not 
so  much  how  many  yards  of  cloth  or  ribbon  may  be  purchased, 
but  such  a  knowledge  of  textiles  as  will  enable  the  purchaser  to 


Household  Arts  611 

secure  a  fair  value.  It  includes  the  study  of  the  consumption 
of  time  and  energy,  since  efficiency  is  as  necessary  to  the  proper 
management  of  the  home  as  it  is  to  that  of  the  factory.  The 
big  directing  purpose  of  household  arts  may  be  defined  as  a 
desire  to  improve  social  conditions  through  teaching  the  effec- 
tive control  of  physical  environment. 

SCHOOL  WORK  SHOULD  CONNECT  CLOSELY  WITH 
LIFE.  -  Training  in  household  arts  should  fit  actual  life  con- 
ditions. This  is  a  necessity.  The  teacher  must  know  the 
home  conditions  of  the  individual  members  of  her  class  be- 
fore she  can  adapt  her  work  to  their  needs,  but  she  must  also 
know  the  home  conditions  of  the  community  at  large  and 
point  the  way  for  cooperative  work,  for  without  some  such 
knowledge  she  is  in  danger  of  educating  her  girls  away  from 
actual  conditions.  The  kindergartner,  by  means  of  her  home 
visits  and  gatherings  of  mothers,  is  exerting  a  greater  in- 
fluence in  the  home  than  is  the  teacher  of  household  arts. 
The  Mothers'  Associations  might  easily  include  the  parents 
of  older  students.  The  kindergartner  would  welcome  the  as- 
sistance of  the  household  arts  teacher,  not  only  in  the  pro- 
gram, but  also  on  the  social  side,  which  is  always  more 
intimate  when  combined  with  appropriate  refreshments. 
The  mothers  might  accept  suggestions  from  their  daughters 
concerning  things  learned  in  a  domestic  science  lesson  if  they 
were  acquainted  with  the  teacher  and  respected  her  opinion. 

A  word  of  warning  may  be  in  place.  The  teacher  will  not 
gain  the  mother's  respect  unless  she  is  willing  to  give  a  respect- 
ful consideration  to  that  mother's  home  methods.  Unless 
very  careful,  the  teacher  may  quite  unconsciously  offend 
some  foreign  mother.  Furthermore,  social  workers  claim 
that  much  of  the  lawlessness  of  children  of  foreign  parentage 
is  due  to  the  loss  of  filial  respect,  engendered  in  our  schools 
through  lack  of  considerate  attention  to  the  customs  of  other 
nations.  In  a  cookery  lesson,  it  is  wise,  after  giving  the  fun- 
damental principle  in  the  effect  of  heat  upon  a  given  food- 


612  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

stuff,  to  illustrate  or  at  least  indicate  the  different  modifications 
in  its  preparation  or  service  in  other  countries.  Often  the 
same  dish  is  merely  cloaked  with  a  different  name.  Similar 
consideration  should  not  be  neglected  in  the  study  of  costume 
or  housewifery.  Comparison  of  methods,  eliciting  the  good 
from  each,  is  a  quick  way  of  securing  mutual  respect  and 
social  sympathy. 

CLOTHING  AND  HYGIENE.  —  The  Gertrude  of  Pesta- 
lozzi  was  most  careful  of  the  toilet  of  her  children.  They 
were  taught  habits  of  neatness,  the  arrangement  of  their  hair 
and  the  condition  of  their  dresses  was  a  part  of  the  teacher's 
responsibility.  The  domestic  art  teacher  presents  no  new 
principle  of  education  \vhen  she  introduces  talks  on  personal 
hygiene  and  gives  instruction  in  the  care  and  maintenance  of 
the  wardrobe.  Habits  of  dress  have  an  economic  importance 
far  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  cloth  per  yard  or  the  size  of  the 
milliner's  bill.  It  is  of  primary  concern  that  the  girl  who  is 
entering  a  business  or  professional  life  possess  an  attractive 
personal  appearance ;  an  appearance  neat,  appropriate,  and 
becoming.  She  will  find  this  a  decided  asset  in  securing  not 
only  employment,  but  the  respect  of  her  employer. 

Blind  and  stupid  following  of  fashion  is  to  be  met  by 
instruction  in  costume  design  and  color  harmony.  The  study 
of  proportion  and  form  carried  out  in  garment  construction 
will  train  the  girls  to  an  appreciation  of  beauty  and  appro- 
priateness. The  study  of  domestic  art,  however,  should  go 
below  the  surface  and  deal  with  both  toilet  and  dress.  A  study 
of  the  proper  kind  of  corsets  and  shoes  is  as  necessary  as  the 
consideration  of  those  garments  which  the  girls  themselves 
may  make  in  the  classroom.  This  whole  subject  of  dress 
should  be  in  close  coordination  with  that  of  physiology.  An 
ethical  question  is  also  involved  which  must  not  be  passed  by. 
Every  teacher  of  household  arts  has  a  heavy  moral  respon- 
sibility. Clean-minded  men  remonstrate,  while  others  stare, 
at  the  hobble  or  slit  skirt,  the  extremely  low  neck,  the  ab- 


Household  Arts  613 

surdly  short  sleeves,  and  the  high-heeled  pumps  so  commonly 
worn.  This  is  a  fact  not  to  be  controverted,  a  fact  presenting 
a  problem  more  important  than  sewing  or  pattern  drafting. 
Teachers  of  household  arts  should  recognize  this.  They  should 
go  further  than  cultivating  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful,  the 
becoming,  the  appropriate,  and  not  hesitate,  from  any  false 
modesty,  to  teach  true  modesty.  It  is  admitted  that  home  is 
the  best  place  for  such  instruction  and  the  mother  the  proper 
one  to  give  it.  Unfortunately  some  girls  lack  proper  home 
environment  and  even  mothers  ;  and  all  girls  discount  what  is 
told  them,  until,  through  study,  the  fundamental  laws  impress 
upon  them  the  wisdom  of  what  their  mother  said.  If  the 
students'  brothers  and  sisters  are  taken  as  concrete  illustra- 
tions, care  and  clothing  of  infants  and  small  children  can  be 
taught  in  a  way  to  avoid  self-consciousness.  Older  sisters 
have  a  great  influence  on  the  younger,  and  the  "  little 
mothers  "  thus  secure  a  training  that  will  later  stand  them  in 
good  stead.  It  is  more  important  for  them  to  know  how  to 
bathe  the  baby,  dress  it  properly,  and  use  the  power  of  sug- 
gestion in  the  formation  of  its  habits,  than  to  embroider  a 
petticoat  or  make  Hollandaise  sauce.  Whether  the  girl 
marries  or  not,  she  should  bear  her  part  in  the  prevention  of 
infant  mortality,  and  a  knowledge  of  child  hygiene  will  make 
her  an  intelligent  worker  both  in  her  home  and  civic  life. 

FOOD  AND  NUTRITION.  —  Satisfaction  is  felt  in  the 
ownership  of  a  body  and  brain,  only  when  the  mechanism  of 
the  body  runs  smoothly  and  supplies  due  energy  for  the  mind 
to  apply.  That  energy  is  secured  by  the  adequate  intake  of 
air,  water,  and  food,  and  the  proper  elimination  of  waste. 
We  eat  to  live  ;  the  direction  of  that  life  and  energy  is  another 
problem.  Efficiency,  however,  is  to  be  secured  only  through 
the  maintenance  of  nutritive  equilibrium.  The  food  for  in- 
fancy is  nicely  balanced  by  nature  in  the  mother's  milk,  and 
the  food  of  the  mother  affects  this  supply.  It  is  acknowl- 
edged that  much  of  the  sickness  or  failure  to  nourish  the 


6 14  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

child  properly  comes  from  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  young 
mother,  which  might  have  been  avoided  by  a  little  timely  in- 
struction. Lack  of  natural  food  and  the  necessity  of  artificial 
feeding  is  a  large  factor  in  infant  mortality,  and,  therefore, 
the  food  for  infants  and  small  children  is  a  practical  and  most 
important  phase  of  household  arts  instruction.  Food  habits 
are  acquired  early  and  need  guidance  and  direction.  Malnu- 
trition is  prevalent  among  the  wealthy  as  well  as  among  the 
poorer  people.  This  is  due  to  ignorance  of  the  proper  food  to 
buy  rather  than  to  a  lack  of  money  with  which  to  buy  it. 
Increased  facilities  of  transportation  have  brought  to  our 
doors  the  products  of  every  clime ;  a  new  problem,  that  of 
choice,  has  been  laid  upon  the  homemaker.  This  requires  a 
knowledge  of  food  values  and  food  requirements. 

The  housewife  must  have  an  appreciation  of  what  constitutes 
cost  and  its  contributing  factors,  for  the  price  one  pays  for 
an  article  may  be  no  criterion  of  its  food  value.  Cheap  food 
is  not  necessarily  either  unappetizing  or  lacking  in  food  value. 
The  cost  of  production  and  manufacture,  the  keeping  qualities, 
ease  of  transportation,  nearness  to  markets,  all  influence  the 
price  placed  upon  an  article.  Cleanliness  in  the  handling 
and  delivery  of  goods  increases  the  cost  legitimately,  and 
cleanliness  is  worth  paying  for.  Sanitary  science  is  closely 
linked  with  the  marketing  problem. 

Technical  Skill  to  be  Gained.  —  Skill  in  manipulation 
should  be  secured  through  individual  work  under  conditions 
calculated  to  develop  responsibility  and  initiative.  It  is 
important  that  the  individuality  of  the  young  cook  be  en- 
couraged. While  the  fundamental  principles  in  the  applica- 
tion of  heat  to  foodstuffs  are  definite,  the  art  of  cookery  is 
the  result  of  imagination  applied  to  "  tasteful  "  combinations, 
attractive  forms,  and  interesting  seasonings.  There  are  but 
a  limited  number  of  foodstuffs,  and  any  girl  who  succeeds  in 
modifying  some  monotonous  dish  or  inventing  a  new  one  has 
conferred  a  blessing  upon  humanity.  The  correct  serving 


Household  Arts  615 

of  simple  meals  is  of  equal  importance  with  their  preparation. 
These  should  be  appropriate  to  the  lives  of  the  girls,  and  all 
display  of  fancy  cookery  should  be  carefully  avoided. 

Scientific  Knowledge.  —  The  girl  attending  a  secondary 
school  cannot  be  expected  to  comprehend  organic  chemistry 
such  as  is  involved  in  food  composition.  She  lacks  the 
maturity  necessary  to  become  scientific  minded.  When  the 
attempt  is  made  to  teach  her  food  chemistry  the  usual  re- 
sult is  a  superficial  understanding  or  a  memorizing  of  sweep- 
ing generalities.  She  cannot  appreciate  the  intermediate 
steps  in  such  complicated  chemical  changes  and  is  apt  to 
believe  that  her  knowledge  of  results  indicates  a  mastery  of 
a  subject,  which,  in  fact,  she  has  scarcely  entered.  There  is 
a  thought  content  to  this  work,  however,  of  such  practical 
importance  as  to  demand  attention.  A  knowledge  of  the 
general  classification  of  foodstuffs  and  the  effect  of  the  heat 
as  applied  in  the  processes  necessary  to  their  preparation  for 
the  table  is  essential.  The  changes  in  the  foodstuffs  thus 
affected  must  be  considered  with  reference  to  appearance,  tex- 
ture, taste,  digestion,  and  metabolism. 

Waste.  —  Waste  is  a  topic  of  especial  importance,  affecting 
the  cost  of  living  in  more  ways  than  are  usually  recognized. 
The  self-evident  waste  in  the  garbage  can  is  the  most  easily 
governed.  Skillful  preparation  of  left-overs  can  be  taught 
satisfactorily,  but  the  avoidance  of  left-overs  is  more  sensible. 
To  buy  or  cook  a  larger  quantity  than  is  needed  is  evidence 
of  bad  management,  but  the  application  of  the  wrong  degree 
and  quantity  of  heat  in  the  cookery  of  a  given  food  may  render 
it  difficult  of  digestion  and  necessitate  the  utilization  of  a  dis- 
proportionate amount  of  energy  in  order  to  bring  it  to  a  form 
capable  of  absorption,  and  there  is  also  apt  to  be  a  high  per- 
centage of  waste  in  undigested  material.  It  is  a  truism  to 
say  that  it  is  not  what  we  eat,  but  what  we  digest,  which 
nourishes  us.  Water  and  air  are  important  factors  in  body 
nutrition  and  elimination,  and  if  these  are  unclean  or  in- 


616  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

sufficient,  arrested  development  and  illness  are  likely  to 
result. 

Prevention  is  the  keynote  of  this  study,  the  prevention  of 
the  human  ills  which  are  so  costly  in  their  cure.  To  quote 
from  Mrs.  Richards  :  "The  healthy,  happy  person  is  not  liable 
to  be  a  criminal.  Prisons  and  reformatories  are  filled  with 
those  whose  twisted  nerves  and  starved  muscles  mean  knotted 
brains,  and  troublesome,  uncontrolled  impulses."  Is  it  not 
true  economy  for  a  community  to  prevent  by  adequate  in- 
struction the  production  of  this  class  ? 

HOUSING  CONDITIONS,  HOUSE  PLANNING,  AND 
HOME  KEEPING. — Increasing  numbers  of  people  are  crowd- 
ing into  cities  which  are  already  badly  congested.  This  ex- 
treme congestion  has  caused  housing  conditions  under  which 
health  and  strength  have  small  chance  for  development.  In- 
vestigation shows  that  disease  and  death  are  in  direct  propor- 
tion to  the  light  and  air  space  in  the  tenement,  and  that 
criminality  grows  \vhere  unsanitary  housing  conditions  exist. 
Infant  mortality  in  houses  fronting  on  alleys  is  nearly  three 
times  that  in  houses  fronting  on  streets.  The  problem  thus 
presented  is  an  intensely  human  one,  as  the  efficiency  of  our 
citizenship  is  dependent  upon  the  decent  housing  of  our  people. 
The  coming  generation  must  be  instructed  in  house  sanitation. 
Our  schools  now  contain  the  future  landlords  and  tenement 
dwellers.  In  the  schools,  then,  the  work  must  be  done. 

Proper  ventilation  is  of  first  importance.  The  need  of  a 
sufficient  supply  of  clean  air  for  breathing  creates  a  problem 
as  grave  as  that  of  securing  clean  water  for  drinking  or  for 
bathing.  The  schoolgirl  should  be  taught  these  facts  and 
given  some  knowledge  of  heating,  ventilating,  and  plumbing 
systems. 

Care  of  the  sick  should  be  taught.  This  training  includes 
practice  in  proper  bed  making,  bathing,  emergency  bandages, 
poultices,  compresses,  and  first  aid  to  the  injured.  There  is 
no  attempt  to  develop  professional  nurses,  but  rather  an 


Household  Arts  617 

effort  to  make  every  woman  able  to  meet  the  accidents  which 
occur,  and  to  care  for  small  ailments  which  do  not  require  a 
physician's  attendance.  Physicians  claim  that  the  lack  of 
proper  care  and  feeding  often  sends  a  patient  back  to  the 
hospital  a  second,  and  even  a  third,  time.  Moreover,  the 
work  is  preventive.  Such  a  high  school  course  might  also 
constitute  prevocational  training  for  professional  nursing  in 
private  institutions,  or  public  welfare  nursing. 

Moral  and  Economic  Values  of  Such  Instruction.  —  The 
physical  environment  of  individuals  has  an  undoubted  effect 
upon  their  character,  happiness,  and  health.  A  pleasant  view 
from  the  dining-room  windows  affects  the  flow  of  digestive 
juices  and  the  consequent  ease  of  digestion.  Unpleasant 
environment,  cither  social  or  physical,  is  often  the  cause  of 
malnutrition  and  indigestion.  Harmonious  coloring  of  walls 
and  hangings,  pleasing  pictures,  and  comfortable  furniture 
are  of  economic  and  social  importance.  These  cost  no  more 
in  dollars  and  cents  than  their  opposites.  Indeed,  the  un- 
comfortable furniture  and  inharmonious  decorations  may  cost 
more.  The  important  thing  is  that  the  girl  understand  the 
principles  of  aesthetics  and  be  trained  in  their  application  to  life. 

The  paths  to  be  traveled  in  performing  the  common  duties 
of  housekeeping  must  be  studied  in  order  to  save  steps  and 
confusion.  There  are  so  many  calls  upon  the  time  and  strength 
of  the  housekeeper  that  conservation  of  both  should  receive  the 
careful  attention  of  those  who  are  qualified  to  advise  and  teach. 
The  homemaker  of  the  future  will  be  a  household  engineer, 
acquainted  with  the  labor-saving  devices  and  equipped  to 
apply  these  through  her  knowledge  of  physics  and  elec- 
tricity. This  will  be  letting  her  head  save  not  only  her  heels, 
but  her  hands  and  her  time.  Efficiency  and  scientific  manage- 
ment are  more  important  in  the  home  than  in  the  factory, 
where  the  product  is  less  important  than  that  of  the  home. 
Again  we  have  here  a  fundamental  prevocational  training  for 
institutional  housekeeping. 


618  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

EQUIPMENT.  —  A  school  system  is  frequently  erroneously 
judged  by  its  handsome  buildings  and  elaborate  equipment, 
when  too  often  these  are  but  proofs  that  the  school  is  training 
girls  away  from  the  home  and  real  life  rather  than  for  it. 
Over-equipment  is  worse  than  under-equipment,  for  the  latter 
at  least  develops  initiative  and  resourcefulness.  The  average 
woman  in  most  localities  will  not  have  an  electric  stove  in  her 
kitchen  for  some  years  to  come ;  therefore,  the  girl  needs  to 
learn  the  control  of  that  type  of  stove  with  which  she  will 
probably  have  to  deal.  Neither  should  the  adequate  equip- 
ment for  teaching  household  arts  be  looked  upon  merely  as 
expense,  but  rather  as  investment.  No  investment  can  be 
more  safe,  nor  guarantee  a  surer  and  larger  interest.  Usually 
lessons  requiring  the  use  of  the  oven  fail  to  put  responsibility 
upon  the  individual  students,  because  of  an  inadequate  num- 
ber of  ovens.  Baking  bread  and  roasting  or  broiling  meat  are 
fundamental  processes  which  all  should  master.  Educating 
away  from  the  home  is  also  evident  in  the  use  of  sewing 
machines  too  expensive  for  the  average  home  to  afford. 
This  criticism  is  a  plea  for  sound  economy,  and  not  at  all 
intended  to  encourage  the  purchase  of  cheap  equipment  which 
in  the  end  must  prove  a  poor  investment.  A  low  cost  is  by 
no  means  synonymous  with  economy. 

The  furnishings  of  the  school  fitting  for  life  in  rural  communi- 
ties should  be  adapted  to  rural  conditions,  while  those  of  the 
urban  school  must  be  adjusted  to  the  conditions  found  in 
tenement  or  flat.  One  of  the  most  needed  reforms  in  every 
home  is  a  more  convenient  arrangement  of  kitchen  equipment. 
The  proper  juxtaposition  of  stove,  sink,  and  cupboard  saves 
hundreds  of  steps.  The  drain  board  to  the  left  of  the  sink 
means  the  saving  of  several  extra  motions  in  the  washing 
of  each  dish,  while  the  proper  height  of  sink  and  table  means 
less  backache.  Proper  ventilation  prevents  overheating, 
and  a  tireless  cooker  secures  economy  of  time  and  fuel.  A  sink 
of  the  right  type  equipped  with  drain  basket  can  be  con- 


Household  Arts  619 

verted  into  a  modern  dish  washer  and  lessen  what  is  con- 
sidered by  every  one  to  be  the  most  unpleasant  part  of  house- 
work. A  school  equipment  made  up  of  many  units,  each  a 
complete  kitchen  providing  opportunity  for  individual  work, 
will  develop  self-reliance. 

Elimination  of  the  Artificial.  —  As  the  teacher  of  commercial 
subjects  is  confronted  with  the  problem  of  eliminating  the 
artificial  so  that  he  may  make  the  work  approach  most  nearly 
to  actual  business,  so  the  household  arts  teacher  must  strug- 
gle with  the  same  difficulty  in  her  own  field.  In  either 
case,  unfortunately,  there  must  remain  too  much  of  the  arti- 
ficial. The  students  are  too  old  not  to  realize  the  make- 
believe,  and  as  a  consequence  are  slow  to  acquire  any  vital 
interest.  Various  plans  have  been  devised  to  offset  this  diffi- 
culty, one  of  which  is  the  use  of  an  apartment  or  group  of 
rooms  where  the  girls  may  actually  keep  house.  The  cooking 
laboratory  furnishes  too  little  opportunity  for  testing  the  girls' 
habits  of  neatness  and  orderliness.  In  the  apartment,  which 
should  be  furnished  for  use  and  not  for  display,  not  only  the 
ordinary  duties  of  the  housewife  may  be  performed,  but  the 
aesthetic  and  social  side  may  also  receive  due  attention. 

Value  and  Results  of  Training  in  Housekeeping.  —  This 
work  in  household  administration  necessitates  the  most  care- 
ful planning,  and  must  be  conducted  by  a  teacher  well  ac- 
quainted with  her  subject.  If  the  apartment  is  wisely  selected, 
much  may  be  learned  of  wall  and  floor  treatment,  of  house 
sanitation,  and  of  plumbing.  The  selection  and  arrang- 
ing of  simple  furniture  teaches  the  girls  how  to  economize 
both  time  and  energy.  Division  of  income  and  household 
accounts  assume  a  real  interest  to  the  group  of  girls  living  as 
a  small  family.  Marketing  is  taught  by  actual  doing,  and 
the  division  of  income  tested  by  a  real  balance  sheet.  But 
at  best  this  too  is  make-believe,  and  whenever  the  girl  can  be 
stimulated  to  use  her  own  home  as  the  laboratory  for  her 
practical  experience,  a  school  can  well  afford  to  credit  such 


620  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

work.  This  plan  has  been  actually  worked  out  in  several 
places  with  success  and  is  to  be  recommended.  Wherever 
there  is  cooperation  with  institutions  or  organizations  con- 
cerned with  the  professional  or  business  use  of  the  processes 
growing  out  of  housekeeping,  the  students  secure  control 
of  the  processes  and  confidence  in  themselves ;  but  best  of 
all  they  come  to  look  upon  this  work  of  housekeeping  as  a 
profession  or  a  business.  There  is  no  questioning  the  better 
attitude  of  the  trained  homemaker  toward  housekeeping  and 
child  care  as  compared  with  the  one  who  is  ignorant  of  the 
possibilities.  She  sees  that  it  is  a  business  worthy  of  her 
best  effort  and  mental  capacity.  She  is  willing  to  invest  in 
it  and  she  finds  joy  and  satisfaction  in  attacking  the  problem. 
Keeping  accounts  is  not  for  her  a  matter  of  accounting  to 
another  for  moneys  received,  but  rather  one  of  money  invested 
in  a  business  which  she  is  anxiously  interested  in  making  pay. 
EXHIBITIONS.  —  Too  much  time  and  energy  are  given  to 
the  preparation  of  work  for  exhibition.  An  exhibition  can 
only  be  material  at  best,  as  the  really  effective  work  of  the 
department  cannot  be  displayed  in  any  such  manner.  The 
exhibition  can  be  justified  only  on  the  ground  that  it  may  act 
as  some  stimulus  to  student  endeavor  and  may  offer  the  public 
some  concrete  idea  of  what  their  children  are  doing.  Unless 
supervisors  are  watchful,  the  teacher's  work  will  be  much 
handicapped  by  the  thought  of  some  annual  exhibition. 
Indeed,  not  only  will  time  and  energy  be  wasted,  but  there 
will  be  great  danger  of  her  losing  sight  of  the  purpose  under- 
lying the  work.  She  will  work  for  the  exhibition  instead  of 
for  the  girl.  The  wisely  arranged  exhibition  will  show  what 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  poor  and  mediocre  as  well  as 
by  the  excellent  students.  Failure  to  make  it  thus  inclusive 
means  that  the  public  must  be  misled  and  the  students  given 
a  lesson  in  bad  ethics.  To  repeat,  the  planning  of  the  year's 
work  should  not  be  affected  by  a  possible  exhibition  looming 
up  ahead.  If  that  work  reaches  the  vital  needs  of  the  girls 


Household  Arts  621 

and  harmonizes  more  and  more  closely  with  the  actual  con- 
ditions, there  will  be  an  abundance  of  material  for  a  creditable 
exhibition.  School  principals  are  often  the  ones  at  fault. 
By  their  ambition  to  make  their  school  show  material  results, 
the  teacher  is  forced  against  her  better  knowledge  to  accede 
to  their  wishes. 

TEACHERS.  —  In  the  last  analysis,  the  success  of  any 
scheme  of  education  depends  upon  the  teacher.  All  depart- 
ments of  school  activity  are  continually  calling  for  better 
teachers,  but  perhaps  none  of  them  are  in  such  need  as  the 
comparatively  new  department  of  household  arts.  It  demands 
teachers  with  vision  and  character  as  well  as  thorough  tech- 
nical training.  A  housekeeper,  a  dressmaker,  or  a  young 
woman  clever  at  sewing  or  cooking  is  not  necessarily  a  good 
teacher  of  household  arts.  The  good  teacher  must,  of  course, 
have  a  natural  or  acquired  deftness  in  the  management  of 
needle  or  rolling-pin,  but  she  must  also  be  well  trained  in  the 
principles  of  chemistry,  physics,  biology,  physiology,  psy- 
chology, sociology,  English,  mathematics,  economics,  and  peda- 
gogy. The  department  has  suffered,  because  of  its  newness, 
from  certain  types  of  teachers.  One  is  the  woman  who,  after 
years  of  teaching  pure  science,  has  taken  up  the  subject  too 
late  to  become  skillful  on  its  technical  side.  Another  is  the 
trade  worker,  who  may  possess  high  manual  dexterity  combined 
with  good  taste,  but  who  necessarily  has  the  trade  point  of 
view,  which  is  narrow,  if  not  selfish.  A  third  type  secures 
a  position  through  influential  friends  and  then  hastens  to 
a  summer  school,  there  to  receive  a  smattering  of  the  subject, 
which,  combined  with  bluff,  will  carry  her  through.  Still 
others,  after  failing  as  teachers  of  the  humanities,  have 
shifted  to  household  arts  work,  wrongly  believing  that  it 
requires  less  capacity.  Finally,  in  this  department,  as  in  all 
others,  teachers  may  be  divided  into  two  classes  —  the  job 
teacher  and  the  professional  teacher  —  one  working  for  salary 
only  and  the  other  for  the  girl  as  well. 


622  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Probably  no  other  department,  barring  that  of  physical 
training,  touches  the  lives  of  the  girls  so  intimately  as  this. 
It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  therefore,  that  its  teachers 
should  be  women  of  vision,  refinement,  and  consecration ; 
women  who  know  the  meaning  of  life  and  the  dignity  of  labor, 
and  who  appreciate  the  aim  of  household  arts.  Fear  the  issue 
one  may,  but  avoid  it  one  dare  not,  —  that  seriously  important 
necessity  of  teaching  our  girls  of  the  dangers  to  be  met,  dis- 
ea,ses  to  be  avoided,  disaster  to  be  escaped,  and  death  to  be 
prevented.  It  takes  the  highest  type  of  woman  to  approach 
girls  on  the  subject  of  social  prophylaxis,  and  much  harm  will 
be  done  if  the  instruction  be  undertaken  by  one  less  pure  in 
mind  than  the  girls  themselves.  Mothers  are  shirking  their 
duty  or  are  unqualified  to  perform  it,  but  the  ethical  responsi- 
bility remains.  Wise  legislation  can  do  much,  but  it  cannot 
lift  the  individual  duty  we  owe  in  protecting  the  womanhood 
and  motherhood  of  succeeding  generations.  If  the  teaching 
of  sex  hygiene  is  deemed  advisable,  let  us  frankly  face  the 
question  and,  as  we  can,  work  out  the  best  method  of  bring- 
ing our  girls  to  a  sane  comprehension  of  the  responsibility 
they  hold,  the  self-respect  they  must  maintain,  to  guard  their 
womanhood.  There  should  be  no  roughshod  methods, 
and  we  question  the  advisability  of  class  instruction  for  the 
self-conscious  adolescent  girl.  Only  mature  wisdom  can 
dictate  the  psychological  moment,  but  the  household  arts 
teacher  should  not  neglect  her  opportunities. 

Women  who  have  taken  their  degrees  as  Doctors  of  Medicine 
and  others  who  are  graduates  of  the  best  schools  of  household 
arts,  confess  that  they  failed  to  make  the  application  of  physio- 
logical facts  themselves.  The  bridging  over  between  theory 
and  life  is  not  being  accomplished,  and  girls  enter  married 
life  quite  ignorant  of  its  responsibilities.  There  may  be  found 
here  one  means  of  combating  infant  mortality  and  of  diminish- 
ing the  number  of  unhappy  marriages.  This  really  amounts 
to  vocational  training,  but  for  a  vocation  which  from  the 


Household  Arts  623 

time  of  the  cave  woman  to  the  end  of  human  existence  must 
belong  to  woman. 

THE  HOME  IDEA  MUST  BE  PRESERVED.  —  The  appli- 
cation of  steam  and  electricity  to  transportation,  communica- 
tion, and  manufacture  has  altered  the  human  environment 
more  in  the  last  three  quarters  of  a  century  than  had  been 
done  in  the  six  thousand  years  preceding.  These  changes 
have  been  made  manifest  in  the  home  in  many  ways.  Though 
industries  have  been  removed  from  the  home,  the  absence  of 
the  industries  has  not  destroyed  the  home,  and  if  in  the  course 
of  events  other  processes  should  be  taken  away,  indeed,  if 
even  the  kitchen  stove  and  the  sewing  machine  should  become 
useless,  it  would  still  be  home,  because  home  is  a  place  for  the 
shelter,  privacy,  and  rest  of  a  group  of  individuals  bound  to- 
gether by  ties  of  affection. 

In  the  final  analysis,  that  which  makes  the  home  is  not 
purely  material,  and  teachers  of  homemaking  must  never 
lose  sight  of  this  fundamental  truth.  From  the  economic 
standpoint  alone,  the  home  cannot  successfully  compete  with 
a  larger  grouping  of  individuals.  If  material  wants  are  to 
be  satisfied,  man  will  go  where  that  satisfaction  can  best  be 
obtained,  and  this  will  not  be  in  the  home.  If  one  believes 
that  the  integrity  of  this  country  is  dependent  upon  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  home,  he  must  realize  at  once  the  vital  importance 
of  teaching  the  young  how  to  preserve  that  home.  The  home 
developed  from  a  feeling  of  the  need  of  protection,  and  it  still 
has  that  ideal,  but  the  office  of  a  real  home  is  also  to  teach 
right  habits  of  living,  as  well  as  to  develop  individuality  and 
responsibility.  Though  the  home  of  to-day  may  be  different 
in  outward  appearance  from  the  home  of  yesterday,  it  still 
offers  an  opportunity  for  the  development  of  obedience, 
reverence,  unselfishness,  and  love. 

This  ideal  has  been  set  for  all  teachers  of  household  arts 
by  the  pioneer  worker  in  the  application  of  science  to  the  home. 
Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards  states:  "  When  mothers  become  so 


624  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

careless  or  ignorant  that  half  their  children  fail  to  reach  the 
first  birthday,  and  of  those  that  live  to  be  three  years  old, 
a  majority  are  defrauded  of  their  birthright  of  health,  some 
agency  must  step  in.  If  the  state  is  to  have  good  citizens, 
it  must  provide  for  the  teaching  of  the  essentials  to  the  genera- 
tion that  will  become  the  wiser  mothers  and  fathers  of  the 
next." 

VOCATIONAL  ASPECT  OF  HOUSEHOLD  ARTS.  - 
Large  numbers  of  girls  who  complete  a  high  school  course 
of  study  must  immediately  enter  some  wage-earning  position 
and  are  therefore  forced  to  seek  information  and  training 
for  economic  ends.  A  still  larger  number  have  been  entering 
the  field  of  industry  immediately  after  leaving  the  grammar 
schools.  Legislation  is  being  quite  generally  enacted  to  re- 
tain the  girl  in  school,  and  the  school  must  therefore  see  that 
her  time  is  profitably  spent  in  preparation  for  a  vocation. 

The  Trade  School.  —  The  Manhattan  Trade  School  in  New 
York  City  paved  the  way  for  others  of  a  similar  character  in 
New  Britain  and  Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  and  in  Worcester, 
Massachusetts.  "  These  short-term  trade  schools  with  neces- 
sary academic  and  specific  intensified  trade  courses  are  for 
those  who  must  become  wage  earners  as  early  as  possible. 
The  Worcester  Girls'  Industrial  School  has  lengthened  the 
course  to  twro  years.  Wage  earning  is  the  goal  and  not 
home  dressmaking.  Quality  and  speed  are  the  two  points 
emphasized  in  order  that  the  tasks  may  bring  adequate  re- 
turns." 

In  view  of  the  facts  that  of  the  seventy-five  thousand 
women  workers  allied  with  women's  trade  unions,  twenty-two 
thousand  are  permanently  out  of  work  all  winter,  and  that  of 
all  industrial  workers  among  women  not  a  tenth  are  allied 
with  trade  unions,  it  is  a  pretty  safe  estimate  to  say  that  at 
least  one  hundred  thousand  women  workers  in  industries  are 
out  of  work  in  the  big  cities  of  the  East  today.  When  one 
realizes  that  more  than  twenty-two  thousand  are  working  on 


Household  Arts  625 

half-time  in  the  white  goods  work  alone,  and  that  at  wages 
from  $3.50  to  $4.50  a  week,  one  can  but  question  the  cause 
and  ask  whether  we  do  well  to  train  the  nimble  fingers  of  our 
youth  for  this  fierce  battle.  There  is  the  greatest  need  of 
vocational  guidance  and  that  by  means  of  a  well-organized 
bureau  with  experienced  and  trained  advisers.  The  misfits, 
more  than  the  untrained,  are  among  these  idle  workers.  It 
is  devoutly  hoped  that  the  standardization  of  housework,  of 
homemaking,  and  of  child  care  may  win  for  them  their  proper 
place  as  a  vocation  for  girls,  many  of  whom  are  better  fitted 
to  be  house  workers  than  factory  workers. 

The  following  is  the  program  for  girls  of  the  day  classes : 

FIRST  YEAR 

I.  Trade  work  in  one  trade  22-25  nrs-  Per  week. 
II.  Cookery,  2  lessons  \\  hrs.  each  per  week. 

III.  Class  instruction  3  to  4',  hrs.  weekly. 

1.  Trade  arithmetic    (not  given  all  year  except   to   girls  back- 

ward in  arithmetic). 

2.  English  —  oral  and  written. 

a.  Business  letters. 

/;.   Compositions  based  on  trade  work. 

3.  Spelling  —  trade  terms,  phrases  and  words  in  common  use. 

4.  Writing. 

5.  Citi/.enship  —  social  ethics. 

The  above  subjects  are  not  necessarily  presented  parallel 
to  each  other.  One  subject,  such  as  arithmetic,  is  pre- 
sented for  one  term",  as  necessary,  and  another  substi- 
tuted as  advisable. 

IV.  Art. 

1.  Color  scales. 

2.  Line,  such  as  arrangement  of  tucks,  rows  of  insertion,  etc. 

3.  Spacing  and  proportion  of  arrangement  of  trimmings,  etc. 

4.  Designs  for  garments,  trimmings,  hats,  etc. 

V.  Physical  education,  2  lessons  of  45  min.  each  weekly. 

1.  Short  drills  in  marching,  wand  drills,  etc.,  for  cooperation. 

2.  Games,  such  as  tag,  pass  ball,  volley  ball,  etc. 

3.  Folk  dancing. 

4.  Hygiene. 


626  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

SECOND  YEAR 

I.  Trade  22-25  hrs.  per  week. 
II.  Advanced  cooking  (elective),  2  lesson  of  \\  hrs.  weekly. 

III.  Class  instruction  3-4^  hrs.  weekly. 

1.  Advanced  trade  arithmetic  given   for  one  term  of  fourteen 

weeks. 

a.  Shop  organization. 

b.  Estimates  of  material  for  garments. 

c.  Economy  of  material. 

d.  Estimates  for  prices  on  single  garments  and  large  orders, 

such  as  underwear,  etc. 

2.  English. 

«.  Accurate  descriptions  of  work,  etc. 

b.   Directions  for  making  garments  or  parts  of  garment. 

3.  Textiles. 

a.  Study  of  weaves,  textures,  adulterations,   etc.,   through 

practical  tests. 

b.  Short  history  of  common  textiles  —  cotton,  linen,  wool, 

and  silk. 

4.  Industrial  history  and  geography  as  related  to  women's  work. 

5.  Citizenship  —  practical  civics. 

6.  Apportionment  of  income  —  expenditure. 

IV.  Art  (elective). 

1.  Applied  design  —  designs  for  dress  trimmings,  hat  trimmings, 

buckles,  bands,  etc. 

2.  Costume  designing. 

3.  Designing  of  hats. 
V.  Physical  education. 

i.  Continuation  of  first  year's  work. 

The  Girls'  Technical  High  School.  —  The  technical  high 
school  is  of  a  widely  differing  type,  having  broad  academic 
and  general  vocational  courses  extending  over  three  or  four 
years  for  those  able  to  devote  so  much  time  to  stud}'  and  prep- 
aration for  a  life  work.  Since  few  girls  who  enter  high  school 
know  what  their  future  work  is  to  be,  the  high  school  course, 
if  constructed  upon  broad  lines,  will  help  determine  for  each 
girl  to  what  she  can  best  afford  to  devote  herself  as  a  means 
of  livelihood.  The  program  for  the  practical  arts  high  school 
is  outlined  to  include  as  many  of  the  liberal  or  non-vocational 


Household  Arts 


627 


studies  as  possible,  together  with  the  necessary  vocational 
studies.  These  are  given  with  as  broad  an  educational  value 
as  possible  but  must  represent  exact  industrial  conditions. 
By  the  third  year  the  girl  is  expected  to  show  her  preference,  and 
real  specialization  takes  place  in  the  senior  year.  In  addition 
to  the  special  line  of  work  the  girl  is  "  given  the  English, 
mathematics,  history,  and  science  which  will  be  most  helpful 
in  future  competition." 

The  cooperative  plan  is  followed  in  some  cities  with  success, 
and  an  increasing  number  of  opportunities  to  cooperate  in 
office,  shop,  factory,  and  institution  are  being  found. 


GIRLS'   PRACTICAL  ARTS   COOPERATIVE   COURSE 
FIRST  YEAR  SECOND  YEAR 


English 4 

Mathematics 4 

Applied  art 5 

Cookery 4 

Sewing 8 

Music i 

Physical  training 2 


English 

Mathematics 

Applied  art 

Cookery  and  home  economics 
Millinery  and  dressmaking 


Music  .     .     .     . 
Physical  training 


4 
5 
4 
6 
10 

i 

2 


THIRD  YEAR 


English 

French,  German,  or  Spanish  . 

Applied  art 

Cookery 

Millinery  or  dressmaking 


Music i 

Physical  (raining 2 

Cooperative  plan;   alternate  weeks 
in  school  and  shop. 


FOURTH  YEAR 

English      .     , 4 

French,  German,  or  Spanish  .  4 

History  (American) ....  4 

Civics i 

Applied  art 2 

Cookery 6 

Millinery  or  dressmaking    .      .10 

Music i 

Physical  training      ....      2 

Cooperative  plan;  alternate  weeks 

in  school  and  shop. 


628  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

SOMERVILLE   COURSE 
FIRST  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

PERIODS         POINTS 

English 4  4 

Mathematics 5  5 

Ancient  history . 4  4 

Science  lectures i 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Cooking,  sewing,  and  drawing  .  10  5 

SECOND  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

PERIODS         POINTS 

English  2 4  4 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Elective  Studies 

Group  I.     (Choose  two) 

Geometry 5  5 

European  history 4  4 

French            5  5 

Household  physics 5  5 

Group  II.     (Choose  one) 

Drawing  and  applied  arts  .      .      .      .  10  5 

Cooking 10  5 

Millinery  and  dress-making      .      .      .  10  5 

THIRD  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

PERIODS  POINTS 

English  3 4  4 

Physical  geography 5  5 


Household  Arts  629 


Ethics     
Music      

PERIODS 
I 
I 

POINTS 

Physical  training     

I 

Elective  Studies 

Group  I.     (Choose  one) 
French  2  
Practical  arithmetic       .... 
Cooking  and  household  chemistry 

•      5 
•      5 
5 

5 
5 
5 

Group  II.     (Choose  one) 
Domestic  arts      
Drawing  and  applied  arts  2 

.    10 
.   10 

5 
5 

FOURTH  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

English  4     
United  States  history  and  civics  . 

Ethics 

PERIODS 

•      4 
•      4 

i 

POINTS 

4 
4 

Music       
Physical  training     

I 
I 

Elective  Studies 

Group  I.     (Choose  one) 
French  3   
Review  of  mathematics 
Physics     
Biology     

4 
5 
5 
•      5 

4 
5 
5 

5 

Group  II.     (Choose  one) 
Dressmaking  
Millinery  
Household  management 

.     10 

.     IO 
.     IO 

5 
5 

5 

The    Household    Arts   in   the    Academic   High    School.  - 

The  program  for  household  arts  in  the  general  academic 
high  school  course  differs  from  that  in  the  practical  arts  high 
school  as  the  natural  result  of  its  differing  aim.  The  girls 
following  this  course  do  not  feel  the  economic  pressure  of 


630  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

those  entering  the  practical  arts  high  school  course,  and  may 
continue  their  studies  into  the  college.  Therefore  this  program 
must  include  college  entrance  requirements.  Some  colleges 
are  granting  from  two  to  four  credit  units  for  household  arts. 
These  courses  are  given  with  a  view  to  the  girls'  own  needs 
and  are  made  as  broadly  educational  as  possible.  The  experi- 
mental method  in  laboratory  practice,  and  the  broad  economic 
and  social  content  of  household  arts  make  it  a  subject  as  truly 
educative  as  any  in  the  school  program.  Its  value,  like  that 
of  any  study,  lies  largely  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  presented. 
It  may  also  form  a  basis  for  later  specialization  during  the 
college  course  and  lead  to  several  vocations,  such  as  the  teach- 
ing of  household  arts,  institutional  management,  dietetics, 
nursing,  social  service,  public  health  work,  etc.  The  fortu- 
nate thing  about  a  household  arts  course  is  its  dual  value,  as 
a  preparation  for  living  as  well  as  for  earning  a  livelihood. 

ACADEMIC  PROGRAM  INCLUDING  HOUSEHOLD  ARTS 

FIRST  YEAR  SECOND  YEAR 

English \     English 4 

Elocution i     Elocution i 

Latin  or  German  (adv.)  or  Ger-  Latin  or  German  (adv.)  or  Ger- 
man (beg.) 5         man  (beg.) 5 

Algebra 4     Geometry 5 

Garment    making    and    laundry  Millinery  and  dressmaking .     .  8 

work        8     Applied  art 2 

Applied  art 2     Music i 

Music i     Physical  training 2 

Physical  training 2 

THIRD  YEAR  FOURTH  YEAR 

English 4     English 4 

Elocution i     Elocution i 

One  from  Two  from 

Latin  or  Latin  or 

German  (adv.)  or    \  German  (adv.)  or 

German  (beg.)  or    }       ...  5         German  (beg.)  or 
German  (ist  year)  j  German  (ad  year) 


Household  Arts  631 

French 4    French 4 

Spanish       4     Spanish 4 

History  (ancient) 4     Physics  (2  lab.) 6 

Botany 2     History  (American)    ....  4 

Chemistry  (2  lab.) 6 

Home  economics 8     Civics i 

Home  economics 6 

Applied  art 2     Physiology 5 

Music i     Applied  art 2 

Physical  training 2     Music i 

Physical  training 2 

SOMERVILLE   COURSE 

FIRST  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

PERIODS         POINTS 

English 4  4 

Mathematics 5  5 

Science  lectures i 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Elective  Studies 

Cookery 5  i\ 

Choice  of  one  language 5  5 

SECOND  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

PERIODS         POINTS 

English  2 4  4 

Ancient  history       4  4 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Elective  Studies 

Cookery 5  2\ 

Choice  of  one  language 5  5 


632  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

THIRD  YEAR 

Required  Studies          PERIODS       POINTS 

English 4  4 

European  and  English  history       ...     4  4 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Elective  Studies 

Household  arts 5  2^ 

Choice  of  one  language 5  5 

FOURTH  YEAR 

Required  Studies 

English  4 4  4 

United  States  history  and  civics  ...     4  4 

Ethics i 

Music i 

Physical  training i 

Elective  Studies 

Household  arts 5  2\ 

Choice  of  one  language 5  5 

HOUSEHOLD  ARTS  IN  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —Legislation  setting  up  systems  of  state 
aid  for  vocational  education  has  been  secured  in  several  states 
and  is  under  consideration  in  others.  This  legislation  is  con- 
cerned with  the  establishment  of  practical  arts  high  schools 
in  which  shall  be  given  instruction  in  household  arts.  The 
status  in  a  few  of  the  states  which  have  most  advanced  legis- 
lation is  as  follows. 

Massachusetts  is  one  of  the  few  to  have  adopted  a  state 
system  of  vocational  education.  The  existing  schemes  differ 
principally  in  regard  to  the  amount  of  support  given  and  de- 
gree of  control  exercised  by  the  state.  Massachusetts  provides 
for  household  arts,  agriculture,  and  industrial  training.  Here, 


Household  Arts  633 

as  in  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Wisconsin,  "  the  instruction 
given  state  grants  must  be  open  to  pupils  over  fourteen  years 
of  age  who  are  able  to  do  the  work  successfully,  even  though 
they  have  not  received  a  common  school  diploma.  The  effect 
of  this  is  to  set  up  a  new  kind  of  secondary  school  paralleling 
the  regular  high  school  for  those  over  fourteen  years  of  age." 
In  Massachusetts  the  local  community  builds  and  equips 
the  plant  and  the  state  pays  one  half  operating  expenses. 
Payment  is  in  proportion  to  results  accomplished.  The  State 
Board  of  Education  is  responsible  for  the  administration  of 
vocational  education  as  well  as  for  general  education.  The 
amendment  to  the  act  of  1911  raises  to  sixteen  the  compul- 
sory school  age  for  attendance  on  a  vocational  or  continuation 
school  by  children  regularly  employed.  Boston  opens  con- 
tinuation schools  September  i,  1914. 

New  York  established  a  system  of  state-aided  vocational 
schools  to  be  administered  by  the  State  Board  of  Education, 
and  those  grants  have  been  extended  from  day  schools  of  various 
kinds  giving  training  in  home  economics,  agriculture,  trades  and 
industries  to  part-time,  continuation,  and  evening  schools,  as 
well  as  increasing  the  aid  to  two  thirds  the  salary  of  the  first 
teacher  and  one  third  the  salary  of  each  additional  teacher. 
This  aid  amounts  to  28  per  cent  of  the  operating  expenses 
of  the  school  in  the  larger  centers  and  29  per  cent  of  the  schools 
in  rural  communities.  A  local  option  measure  empowers 
local  boards  of  education  to  extend  the  compulsory  education 
law  to  "  permit  "  children  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
sixteen  years  of  age  to  attend  part-time  and  continuation 
schools.  This  new  legislation  substitutes  day  attendance  of 
from  four  to  eight  hours  a  week  for  evening  attendance. 
State  aid  to  industrial  schools  for  boys  and  girls  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  is  given  where  girls  put  in  half  the  day 
in  household  arts  work.  In  some  of  the  schools  the  girls  take 
a  little  of  each  subject  for  two  years  and  in  other  schools  a 
little  of  each  for  the  first  year  and  specialize  in  the  second. 


634  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

A  department  of  homemaking  in  connection  with  a  school 
of  agriculture  is  state-aided,  and  the  household  arts  work  is 
given  more  time  than  in  ordinary  programs. 

The  last  general  legislature  made  available  for  Canning 
Club  work  in  Tennessee  about  $5000.  It  is  necessary  for 
the  counties  to  raise  at  least  $200  and  the  state  will  then  give 
$100,  the  state  giving  one  half  as  much  as  the  county  raises, 
up  to  $500.  The  Canning  Club  work  has  encouraged  interest 
in  gardening  and  home  work.  Similar  practices  with  regard 
to  stimulating  interest  in  household  arts  through  Canning 
Clubs  have  been  adopted  in  other  southern  states. 

In  Ohio  any  board  of  education  may  establish  and  main- 
tain domestic  science,  manual  training,  and  commercial  de- 
partments, vocational  and  trade  schools,  also  kindergartens, 
in  connection  with  the  public  school  systems,  and  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  establishing  and  maintaining  such  schools  from  the 
public  school  funds  as  other  expenses  are  paid.  The  state 
does  not  compel  nor  provide  support  for  any  of  these  subjects 
excepting  agriculture,  which  is  left  optional  for  city  districts. 
Ohio  was  the  first  state  to  enact  a  law  compelling  part-time 
schooling  for  those  engaged  in  wage-earning  occupations 
and  requiring  attendance  of  all  under  seventeen  years  of  age 
who  have  not  completed  the  fifth  year  of  school.  Any  who 
have  not  completed  the  eighth  year  of  school  and  are  not  regu- 
larly employed  must  attend  regular  school  until  they  have  either 
completed  the  eighth  grade,  secured  employment,  or  reached 
the  seventeenth  year.  Household  arts  is  offered  girls  in 
regular  and  continuation  schools  in  those  cities  that  have,  by 
referendum  to  the  board  of  education  of  the  community, 
established  continuation  and  part-time  classes.  The  recent 
school  survey  has  awakened  wide  interest  which  will  doubtless 
result  in  early  legislation.  The  public  school  system  of  Cin- 
cinnati has  taken  advantage  of  the  state  right  to  establish 
vocational  training  departments,  as  have  also  the  cities  of 
Toledo,  Cleveland,  Columbus,  and  some  others. 


Household  Arts  635 

Iowa  has  no  special  legislation  along  the  lines  of  vocational 
education,  strictly  speaking.  They  have  some  legislation 
relating  to  industrial  work  in  the  public  schools,  and  the  34th 
general  assembly  passed  a  law,  amended  by  the  35th  general 
assembly,  providing  state  supervision  and  state  financial 
aid  for  a  normal  training  course  in  the  high  schools.  This 
course  includes  elementary  pedagogy  and  art  of  teaching 
elementary  agriculture  and  home  economics.  One  hundred 
and  twenty-nine  of  these  high  school  normal  training  courses 
have  been  established  under  authority  of  this  law.  In  each 
of  these  high  school  districts,  domestic  science  is  taught,  and 
many  other  high  schools  not  having  the  normal  courses  are 
teaching  domestic  science.  The  law  provides  an  appropria- 
tion of  $100,000  for  the  first  year  and  $125,000  for  each  year 
thereafter.  It  also  provides  that  the  aid  given  each  school 
shall  be  $750  annually.  So  general  and  widespread  has  become 
the  interest  in  this  subject  in  Iowa  that  the  last  legislature 
passed  a  law  making  the  teaching  of  agriculture  and  domestic 
science  compulsory  in  all  public  schools  of  the  state  after  July  i , 
1915.  Another  law  provides  for  state  aid  to  consolidated  schools; 
provided  that  there  is  the  necessary  department  and  equipment 
for  teaching  agriculture,  home  economics,  and  manual  training, 
and  employing  teachers  qualified  to  teach  these  subjects.  Iowa 
shows  a  fine  record :  specially  equipped  trains  which  make 
tours  of  the  state  with  short  stops  where  brief  lectures  are 
given  ;  extension  work  and  short  courses  attended  last  year  by 
15,400  women  regularly  enrolled  ;  Farmers' Institutes  ;  health 
contests  — •  all  supported  by  the  extension  department  of  the 
state.  A  survey  of  the  rural  districts  made  under  supervision 
of  the  child  welfare  department  to  secure  vital  statistics  and 
complete  information  in  regard  to  the  health  of  children,  the 
first  of  the  kind  ever  undertaken  in  the  United  States,  indicates 
the  interest  taken  in  the  science  of  right  living.  "  Home  Eco- 
nomics in  Iowa  is  not  a  mere  question  of  cooking  and  sewing ; 
it  is  demanding  the  best  thought  and  highest  culture  in  the 


636  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

study  and  the  solution  of  the  most  vital  problems  that  concern 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  development  of  our  people 
and  that  make  for  a  better  civilization." 

The  Indiana  legislature  established,  by  means  of  the  most 
comprehensive  statute  yet  enacted,  a  state  system  of  vocational 
education,  giving  state  aid  in  domestic  science,  industries, 
and  agriculture,  through  all-day,  part-time,  continuation,  and 
evening  schools.  It  provides  that  elementary  domestic 
science  be  taught  in  all  grades  of  city,  town,  and  township 
schools  and  outlines  the  course  of  study,  but  provides  no 
state  aid  for  what  it  terms  prevocational  instruction  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  work  to  be  done  in  the  special  vocational 
departments  or  schools  further  provided  for  by  the  law.  It 
also  provides  that  the  board  of  education  shall  outline  a 
course  of  study  in  domestic  science  as  well  as  agriculture  and 
industrial  work,  which  it  may  require  high  schools  to  offer  as 
regular  courses.  The  state  regulates  the  qualifications  of  the 
teachers  and  provides  aid  in  the  maintenance  of  approved 
vocational  schools  or  departments  for  domestic  science,  in- 
dustries, and  agriculture  by  payment  annually  of  an  amount 
equal  to  two  thirds  of  the  sum  expended  annually  for  instruc- 
tion in  these  technical  and  vocational  subjects.  Schools,  cities, 
and  townships  are  reimbursed  to  the  extent  of  one  half  the  sum 
expended  for  tuition  in  approved  vocational  schools.  The 
law  requires  each  local  community  to  erect  and  equip  rooms  or 
buildings  in  which  to  teach  these  vocational  subjects  and  for  use 
as  social  centers  suitable  for  the  legal  voters  of  any  township. 
A  special  tax  of  one  cent  is  authorized,  and  any  surplus  not 
allotted  to  schools  is  to  be  placed  in  a  permanent  fund  for 
the  support  and  encouragement  of  vocational  education. 

'In  Wisconsin  a  recent  law  grants  special  aid  to  county 
schools  of  agriculture  and  domestic  science  equal  to  two 
thirds  of  the  amount  actually  expended  for  maintaining  such 
schools  during  the  year,  provided  that  the  total  amount 
shall  not  exceed  S6ooo  to  any  one  school  in  one  year  when  the 


Household  Arts  637 

average  daily  attendance  shall  not  be  less  than  one  hundred 
and  twelve  pupils,  nor  exceed  the  sum  of  SSooo  when  the  average 
attendance  shall  not  exceed  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
pupils.  Minimum  wage  for  teachers  of  domestic  science  is  es- 
tablished by  the  provision  that  state  aid  shall  not  be  granted 
to  any  school  where  the  salary  paid  to  any  teacher  is  less  than 
$60  per  month.  The  act  of  1912  extended  aid  from  the 
treasury  of  the  commonwealth  to  classes  in  household  arts, 
approved  by  the  board  of  education,  for  women,  no  matter 
what  occupation  they  engage  in  during  the  day ;  whereas  pre- 
viously state  aid  for  evening  instruction  was  confined  to  those 
classes  made  up  entirely  of  those  who  were  employed  during 
the  daytime  in  occupations  for  which  the  work  of  the  evening 
class  gave  more  or  less  direct  preparation. 

Federal  Subsidies.  —  Federal  aid  for  vocational  education 
is  likely  to  be  granted  at  an  early  date,  providing  for  extension 
teaching  and  preparation  of  teachers  for  service  in  vocational 
schools  giving  instruction,  through  all-day,  part-time,  and  con- 
tinuation and  evening  classes,  for  the  farm,  the  home,  and  the 
shop.  The  conditions  surrounding  the  appropriation  of 
moneys  to  the  states  is  the  only  debatable  question,  and  the 
working  out  of  this  problem  as  to  the  relationship  of  the 
national  government  to  the  states  in  the  field  of  education  is 
of  interest  to  all. 


TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  principles  should  control  the  organization  of  a  course  in 
household  arts  in  secondary  schools  ? 

2.  Would  it  be  possible  to  relate  the  work  more  directly  to  both  home 
and  school  life  by  the  choice  of  problems  ? 

3.  Would  you  recommend  a  course  of  study  being  planned  upon  the 
basis  of  problems  related  to  the  girl,  the  environment,  the  locality,  and 
other  subjects  in  the  school  program,  rather  than  upon  topics? 

4.  What  would  you  have  our  girls  become  at  the  end  of  their  high 
school  course  ? 


638  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

5.  Is  the  school  contributing  all  it  might  to  the  production  of  this 
kind  of  young  womanhood  ? 

6.  What  have  been  the  causes  contributing  to  the  changes  in  the  char- 
acter of  home  life  ? 

7.  What  is  feminism,  and  what  its  relation  to  instruction'in  the  public 
schools  ? 

8.  What  has  necessitated  the  introduction  of  household  arts  into  the 
schools  ? 

9.  Are  you  content  to  have  this  subject  taught  merely  as  sewing  and 
cooking  ? 

10.   What  vocational  outlets  are  there  for  girls  following  this  course  ? 
n.   What  minimum  of  time  for  household  arts  recitations  per  week 
should  be  demanded  ? 

12.  How  may  the  work  be  motivated  ? 

13.  What  equipment  does  the  work  require? 

14.  If  household  arts  in  high  schools  is  to  emphasize  the  reasons  for 
doing  things,  and  is  to  be  given  largely  from  the  point  of  view  of  applied 
science,  how  can  the  curriculum  be  arranged  that  the  girl  may  have 
some  science  to  apply  ? 

15.  Can  a  course  in  general  science  be  given  in  the  first  year  and  the 
course  in  foods  left  until  the  second  year  ? 

16.  Should  class  work  in  household  arts  which  is  purely  manipulative 
be  given  high  school  credit  ?     If  so,  in  which  course  ? 

17.  Should  a  high  school  offer  elementary  courses  in  cooking  and  sew- 
ing without  credit,  where  such  courses  are  not  provided  by  the  elementary 
schools  ? 

18.  How  many  units  in  household  arts  should  be  required  ? 

19.  Should  there  be  a  better  standardization  of  teachers  of  household 
arts  ? 

20.  To  what  extent  are  textbooks  advantageous  in  the  teaching  of 
this  subject  ? 

21.  What  is  the  standard  in  household  arts  as  taught  in  England, 
Switzerland,  and  Germany  compared  with  its  standard  in  the  United 
States  ? 

22.  Are  the  states  doing  as  much  for  girls  as  for  boys  in  specialized 
instruction  ? 

23.  What  distinction  is  there  between  household  arts  taught  in  trade, 
practical  arts,  vocational,  or  technical  schools  and  in  a  general  high  school 
course  ? 

24.  Localities  have  adopted  various  names  for  the  subject  here  called 
household  arts.     The  National    Society   has  adopted  the  term  home 
economics.     Domestic   science   and   domestic   art    are   names   used   in 


Household  Arts  639 

secondary  schools ;  domestic  economy  is  adopted  by  some.     What  name 
do  you  consider  best,  and  why  ? 

REFERENCES 

BEVIER,  ISABEL,  and  USHER,  SUSAXXAH.  Home  Economics  Movement. 
Boston,  igo6. 

Conference  of  Association  of  Domestic  Science  Teachers.  Liverpool, 
1909. 

COOLEY,  ANNA  M.  Domestic  Art  in  Woman's  Education.  New  York, 
1911. 

England,  Board  of  Education.  Regulations  for  the  Training  of  Teachers 
of  Domestic  Subjects,  1909.  Circular  719.  Teaching  of  Needlework, 
1909. 

Regulations  for  Secondary  Schools,  1907,  1908,  1909. 
Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects.  Vol.  I,  1896-1897,  Domestic 
Economy  Teaching ;  Vol.  II,  1878,  The  Heuristic  Method  of  Teach- 
ing or  the  Art  of  making  Children  discover  Things  for  Themselves ; 
Vol.  VIII,  1902,  Education  in  the  Netherlands;  Vol.  XVI,  1896, 
School  Training  for  the  Home  Duties  of  Women,  Belgium,  Sweden, 
Norway,  Denmark,  Switzerland,  France;  Vol.  XIX,  1907,  School 
Training  for  the  Home  Duties  of  Women  (Germany  and  Austria). 

HODSON,  F.,  editor.     Broad  Lines  in  Science  Teaching.     London,  1909. 

International  Council  of  Women.  Health  of  the  Nations.  Aberdeen, 
1906. 

Ireland,  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction.     Program 

for  Day  Secondary  Schools.     1908. 
Program  of  the  Irish  Training  School  of  Domestic  Economy,  1909-1910. 

KIXXE,  HELEX.     Equipment  for  Domestic  Science  Teaching.     New  York, 

1909. 
Methods  of  Teaching  Domestic  Science.     New  York,  1912. 

Lake  Placid  Reports  on  Home  Ecomonics.     Boston,  1899-1909. 

NORTOX,  A.  P.     Teaching  of  Home  Economics.     Boston,  1910. 

RAVENHILL,  ALICE.  Housecraft  in  Secondary  Schools  for  Girls.  Edu- 
cation, February  14,  21,  28,  March  6,  13,  1908. 

Teaching  of   Domestic   Science   in   the   United   States.     In   English 
Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports,  Vol.  XV.     London,  1905. 

Report  of  Proceedings  of  Fourth  International  Congress  on  Technical 
Education  (London,  1897),  containing  (i)  History  of  Training  Schools 
for  Teachers  of  Domestic  Economy  in  England;  (2)  Treatment  of 
Domestic  Science  as  an  Element  in  Girls'  Education;  (3)  The  Relation 
between  General  and  Technical  Education;  (4)  Technical  Education 


640  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  Secondary  Schools;  (5)   The  Teaching  of  Domestic  Economy  in 
Girls'  Secondary  Schools. 

Report  of  the  London  County  Council  Conference  of  Teachers,  1910. 
(i)  The  Correlation  between  the  Teaching  of  Domestic  Economy  and 
Experimental  Science;  (2)  Practical  Domestic  Economy  Teaching 
in  a  Secondary  School. 

SMYTH,  A.  WATT.  Teaching  of  Domestic  Subjects.  Physical  Deteriora- 
tion. London,  1904. 

Women's  Industrial  Council,  (i)  Technical  Education  for  Girls  in  England 
and  Elsewhere,  1897.  (2)  Domestic  Science  Teaching,  1904.  (3) 
Technical  Education  for  Women  and  Girls,  at  Home  and  Abroad, 
1904-1905. 

WOOLMAN,  M.  S.     The  Making  of  a  Trade  School.     Boston,  1910. 

Sewing  —  A  History  of  Education.     Household  Arts  Review,  February, 
1910. 


CHAPTER   XVH 
VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION 

SCOPE  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION.  —  In  a  certain 
sense,  all  education  is  vocational  in  that  it  aims  to  prepare 
one  for  the  more  efficient  and  satisfactory  performance  of  the 
activities  of  life.  Even  liberal  education  is  in  a  sense  voca- 
tional, for  in  its  various  forms  it  has  aimed  to  prepare  for  the 
life  or  calling  or  "  vocation  "  of  a  statesman  or  man  of  public 
affairs,  of  the  gentleman,  of  an  ecclesiastic,  or  whatever  form 
the  particular  social  concept  of  the  liberally  educated  man 
may  have  taken.  Even  in  the  classical  period,  when  the  con- 
ception of  liberal  education  was  formed,  it  aimed  to  produce 
the  philosopher  in  Greece,  the  orator  in  Rome,  each  denned 
as  the  man  efficient  in  the  application  of  his  knowledge.  In 
its  earlier  historic  stages  elementary  education  was  always 
vocational,  in  that  it  was  merely  a  preparatory  stage  to  some 
form  of  higher  education,  whether  the  vocation  to  be  followed 
was  that  of  a  scholar,  an  ecclesiastic,  a  gentleman,  a  trades- 
man, or  a  craftsman. 

But  in  the  ordinary  usage  of  the  term,  vocational  education 
is  differentiated  from  the  more  general  aspects  of  education, 
in  that  the  chief  concern  of  education  in  its  vocational  form 
is  the  training  in  the  practical  application  of  knowledge 
acquired  in  early  stages  of  the  educational  process  and  the 
education  of  selected  or  differentiated  groups.  In  this  sense, 
vocational  education  includes  all  the  various  forms  of  higher 
or  professional  education,  as  that  for  the  law,  for  medicine, 
for  the  Christian  ministry,  and  for  the  various  phases  of  en- 
gineering. So  also  agricultural  education,  commercial  educa- 
tion, and  allied  subjects  all  represent  phases  of  vocational 

2  T  641 


642  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

education,  though  frequently  considered  as  professional  edu- 
cation as  distinguished  from  those  vocations  where  the  manual 
element  is  more  prominent  and  the  intellectual  or  scientific  is 
more  elementary  in  character.  This  last  phase,  the  one  gen- 
erally indicated  as  vocational  education,  is  termed  industrial 
education. 

The  instruction  of  girls  in  general  household  activities 
under  the  name  of  household  arts  or  ecomony  is  in  a  very 
broad  sense  vocational. 

The  prominence  into  which  these  various  phases  of  voca- 
tional education  have  come  of  late  is  due  to  very  profound 
social  and  economic  changes  which  are  taking  place  in  modern 
society.  Since  these  changes  affect  each  special  aspect  of  the 
subject,  they  are  enumerated  in  the  following  discussion  of 
industrial,  commercial,  agricultural  education,  and  in  the 
chapter  on  Household  Arts.  The  general  educational  bearing 
of  these  fundamental  changes  is  presented  in  the  concluding 
chapter  of  this  volume  on  the  Reorganization  of  Secondary 
Education. 

INDUSTRIAL   EDUCATION 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION.     General  Definition.  —  The 

term  "  industrial  education  "  may  be  used  in  a  very  compre- 
hensive sense  or  in  a  more  restricted  meaning.  In  a  large  way 
the  term  includes  all  education  relating  to  the  industries,  and 
in  this  sense  would  include  instruction  in  industrial  arts  in  the 
elementary  school,  trade  and  technical  instruction  designed 
for  the  industrial  worker,  and  the  professional  education  of 
the  engineering  schools.  In  common  usage,  however,  the 
term  is  employed  in  a  more  limited  fashion  as  denoting  the 
field  of  vocational  education  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  manual  worker  in  the  trades  and  industries,  and  in  this 
sense  it  is  used  in  this  chapter.  In  this  conception  industrial 
education  has  to  do  with  the  secondary  field,  beyond  the  point 
at  which  boys  and  girls  leave  the  elementary  school  and  below 
the  college. 


Vocational  Education  643 

Origin  of  the  Present  Problem.  —  The  need  for  industrial 
education,  as  far  as  it  is  a  matter  of  schools,  has  arisen  since 
the  industrial  revolution  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  in- 
troduced the  factory  system  as  the  universal  type  of  modern 
industrial  organization.  During  the  four  or  five  centuries 
when  the  handicraft  system  of  small  masters  and  establish- 
ments was  the  prevailing  basis  of  production,  the  matter  of 
industrial  training  was  met  in  a  simple  and,  on  the  whole, 
a  competent  manner  within  the  conduct  and  organization  of 
trade  procedure. 

The  effects  of  the  factory  system  were:  (i)  that  division 
of  labor,  constantly  extended,  no  longer  allowed  the  learner, 
if  employed  to  the  greatest  economic  advantage,  to  obtain 
a  broad  experience  in  all  branches  of  a  craft;  and  (2)  that 
the  entire  relation  between  employer  and  learner  was  changed. 
The  master  craftsman,  no  longer  taking  direct  part  in  the 
processes  of  production,  became  the  capitalist  employer, 
whose  first  concern  is  the  development  of  highest  immediate 
productive  efficiency.  The  learner,  on  the  other  hand,  enter- 
ing into  such  an  organization,  faces,  for  the  most  part,  a  wage- 
earning  career  in  which  his  place  will  be  determined  not  alone 
by  his  abilities  and  ambitions,  but  by  the  particular  oppor- 
tunities afforded  him  for  breadth  of  experience  and  for  com- 
prehension of  these  experiences.  In  such  a  situation  it  has 
ceased  to  be  the  immediate  interest  of  the  employer  to  bestow 
more  attention  upon  the  learner  than  will  suffice  to  make 
him  most  rapidly  into  a  productive  unit  at  some  process  in 
the  range  of  the  establishment.  Still  less  is  there  economic 
incentive  for  the  wage-earning  worker  in  a  commercial  estab- 
lishment to  give  time  and  effort  to  extend  the  training  of  the 
learner.  Productive  efficiency  is  the  sole  aim  of  the  modern 
organization  of  industry.  For  this  purpose  it  is  a  highly 
adapted  instrument,  but  education  lies  outside  of  this  purpose. 
These  latter  considerations  operate  so  powerfully  upon  the 
case  that  even  in  trades  representing  very  little  division  of 


644  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

labor,  the  value  of  apprenticeship  training  has  often  fallen 
to  a  very  low  point. 

Factors  in  the  Problem.  —  To  sum  up,  in  this  connection, 
the  situation  presented  by  modern  industrial  conditions,  the 
following  facts  should  be  noted.  First,  grades  of  skill  and  the 
extent  to  which  division  of  labor  is  carried  vary  greatly  in 
different  industries.  Second,  the  typical  manufacturing  in- 
dustries employ  a  large  number  of  workers  of  low-grade  skill, 
who  require  little  initial  instruction  or  experience  to  adapt 
themselves  to  their  narrow  range  of  machine  operations ;  and 
a  smaller  number  of  highly  skilled  workers  demanding  for  their 
equipment  breadth  of  experience  and  trained  intelligence. 
Third,  the  economic  interest  of  the  employer  is  mainly  con- 
cerned with  the  supply  of  the  latter  class  of  workers,  and 
any  measures  undertaken  by  him  to  train  such  a  class  are 
necessarily  based  on  the  prospect  of  future  return  and  not 
of  immediate  profit.  Fourth,  such  training  on  the  part  of 
the  employer  involves  labor  in  addition  to  the  purely  pro- 
ductive work  of  an  industrial  organization,  and  for  that  reason 
an  additional  element  of  expense.  This  element  of  expense 
and  the  extreme  mobility  of  labor  under  modern  conditions, 
permitting  no  guarantee  to  the  employer  that  the  learner 
will  remain  in  his  employ  after  receiving  a  training,  constitute 
the  chief  obstacles  to  the  development  of  adequate  measures 
of  industrial  training  within  commercial  establishments.  To 
these  obstacles  is  added  the  fact  that,  besides  skill  of  hand, 
modern  industry  requires  in  its  expert  workers  increasing 
knowledge  of  mathematics,  science,  drawing,  and  technical 
matters  in  order  to  insure  proper  comprehension  of  new 
methods  and  new  forces  ;  and  for  instruction  in  these  branches 
the  organization  and  personnel  of  an  industrial  establishment 
are  not  well  adapted. 

These  conditions,  under  which  modern  industry  finds  the 
task  of  competently  training  high-grade  workers  within  its  own 
organization  difficult,  expensive,  and  not  assuredly  profitable, 


Vocational  Education  645 

have  brought  forward  the  demand  for  an  outside  agency, 
viz.,  the  school,  to  assist  in  the  task.  The  problem  thus  pre- 
sented of  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  training  under  com- 
mercial conditions,  and  of  supplementing  this  training  by 
additional  instruction,  is  evidently  one  that  must  find  its 
solution  in  particular  and  varied  measures  adapted  to  the 
needs  prescribed  by  different  localities  and  different  industries. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case  there  can  be  no  general  solution, 
but  only  a  multitude  of  particular  solutions. 

The  precise  ends,  then,  placed  before  industrial  education, 
looked  at  from  this  purely  economic  aspect,  are  to  supply 
cither  breadth  of  practical  experience  along  particular  lines, 
or  knowledge  leading  to  the  comprehension  of  technical 
practice,  or  both,  to  young  people  having  opportunities  or 
ambitions  to  fit  themselves  as  high-grade  workers. 

European  Experience.  —  To  this  problem  the  leading  coun- 
tries of  western  Europe  have  addressed  themselves  with  in- 
creasing seriousness  for  something  over  half  a  century,  and 
in  the  United  States  conviction  as  to  its  importance  has  been 
rapidly  developing  during  the  last  few  years.  The  particular 
ways  in  which  European  countries  have  approached  the  prob- 
lem have  been  markedly  differentiated  by  racial  temperament, 
institutional  development,  and  industrial  conditions.  Ger- 
many, with  her  policy  of  fostering  the  old  trade  gilds  and  their 
supervision  of  apprenticeship,  has  found  her  particular  problem 
met  to  a  large  extent  by  specialized  industrial  continuation 
schools,  at  first  conducted  in  the  evening  and  now  to  an  in- 
creasing extent  in  the  day.  These  schools  have  devoted  them- 
selves almost  wholly  to  supplementary  technical  instruction ; 
but  in  the  continuation  schools  of  Munich,  Dr.  Kerschensteiner 
has  introduced  trade  work  both  to  broaden  the  commercial 
routine  and  to  lend  zest  and  point  to  the  other  instruction. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  why  the  continuation  schools  fulfil 
such  an  important  function  in  German  life  is  the  fact  that 
apprenticeship  is  not  only  general,  but  is  entered  into  at  the 


646  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

age  of  fourteen,  at  the  time  when  youths  leave  the  compulsory 
Volksschule.  Another  feature  that  distinguishes  the  German 
continuation  schools,  though  shared  to  some  extent  with  those 
of  Austria  and  Switzerland,  and  which  marks  their  seriousness 
of  purpose,  is  that  attendance  upon  them  is  generally  com- 
pulsory until  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age.  In  the  cases 
where  the  continuation  school  classes  have  been  brought  into 
the  day,  employers  are  compelled  by  law  to  allow  their  ap- 
prentices time  for  attendance.  Compulsory  attendance  upon 
the  primary  school  is  in  this  way  immediately  followed  by  the 
compulsory  attendance  at  continuation  schools  of  all  boys, 
and  sometimes  girls,  who  do  not  attend  higher  schools. 

United  States.  —  In  the  United  States  the  conditions  which 
force  attention  to  the  problem  of  industrial  education  have 
only  recently  appeared.  This  country  has  lived  over  the 
long  industrial  history  of  western  Europe  in  the  brief  span  of 
little  more  than  a  century.  Beginning  with  many  of  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  hunting  and  fishing  stage,  as  illustrated  in  the 
life  of  the  pioneer  and  settler,  eastern  America  passed  in  rapid 
succession  through  the  agricultural  or  farming  stage  and  the 
handicraft  period,  with  its  independent  town  economy,  and 
reached  in  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  highly 
developed  national  system  marked  by  immense  manufacturing 
growth. 

Throughout  this  rapid  evolution,  almost  to  the  present  time, 
the  great  demand  for  intelligent  labor,  consequent  upon  the 
exploitation  of  the  enormous  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
has  afforded  countless  opportunities  for  advancement  to  the 
individual  workman  gifted  with  superior  wit  and  adaptability. 
Practical  ingenuity  and  power  of  quick  comprehension  and 
adjustment  have  often  under  these  conditions  been  of  more 
importance  in  winning  positions  of  leadership  and  master- 
ship than  highly  trained  skill  and  technical  knowledge. 
When  to  this  situation  has  been  added  an  enormous  current 
of  immigration  that  has  served  to  supply  not  only  skilled  work- 


Vocational  Education  647 

men,  but  a  great  army  of  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  workers 
increasingly  needed  for  manufacturing  operations,  it  is  appar- 
ent why  for  a  generation  of  advanced  industrial  organization 
both  the  American  employer  and  the  native-born  American 
workman  have  remained  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  need 
of  industrial  education. 

This  period,  however,  has  come  nearly  to  an  end,  and  the 
stress  of  international  competition  and  lowered  margins  of 
profit  make  it  more  and  more  evident  that  American  industrial 
development  can  be  maintained  only  by  recourse  to  old-world 
methods,  and  the  adoption  of  comprehensive  and  effective 
measures  that  will  insure  a  competent  supply  of  highly  expert 
workers.  What  has  already  been  accomplished  in  the  United 
States  is  largely  the  result  of  private  enterprise  and  philan- 
thropy. Until  within  a  very  few  years,  the  public  school 
system  has  given  little  or  no  attention  to  industrial  education 
and  has  devoted  its  energies  entirely  to  general  and  non- 
vocational  instruction. 

Evening  Schools.  —  The  first  serious  efforts  to  react  upon 
the  industrial  situation  were  represented  in  the  establishment 
of  a  number  of  important  evening  schools  affording  instruction 
in  drawing,  science,  and  mathematics.  Cooper  Union  and 
the  Mechanics  Institute  of  New  York,  Franklin  Union  and  the 
Spring  Garden  Institute  of  Philadelphia,  the  Ohio  Mechanics 
Institute  of  Cincinnati,  and  the  Virginia  Mechanics  Institute 
of  Richmond  were  all  founded  or  opened  their  classes  about 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Such  schools  and  many 
others,  among  which  should  be  mentioned  the  evening  classes 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  have  accomplished 
an  important  work  in  supplying  supplementary  technical 
instruction  to  the  ambitious  young  workingman  in  the  larger 
cities.  Even  in  this  direction,  however,  which  represents 
the  simplest  and  least  expensive  approach  to  industrial  educa- 
tion, the  public  schools  have  been  slow  to  follow.  Their 
concern  has  been  almost  entirely  with  general  studies,  and  it 


648  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

is  only  of  late  years  that  differentiated  and  specialized  courses, 
related  to  industrial  practice,  have  been  introduced  in  the 
public  schools  of  a  few  of  the  more  important  cities. 

The  early  work  of  the  evening  industrial  and  technical 
schools  consisted  of  various  lines  of  drawing,  to  which  were 
gradually  added  courses  in  science,  mathematics,  and  technical 
subjects.  Beginning  about  1890,  certain  of  these  institutions 
established  practical  shop  courses  in  a  few  of  the  high-grade 
mechanical  trades,  intended  to  broaden  the  experience 
obtained  by  the  student  during  the  day.  In  a  few  cases  such 
classes  have  been  incorporated  in  public  evening  schools, 
where  they  have  sometimes  performed  a  valuable  practical 
service  in  advancing  those  employed  at  like  occupations  during 
the  day,  and  sometimes  have  served  merely  to  give  a  little 
tool  dexterity  to  the  amateur  or  the  clerk. 

Technical  Schools.  —  The  next  important  reaction  of  or- 
ganized education  upon  the  industrial  situation  was  that  which 
took  place  for  the  most  part  in  the  period  of  mining  and  rail- 
road expansion  following  the  Civil  War,  and  which  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  many  engineering  schools  or  institutes 
of  technology.  The  establishment  of  such  schools  was  at 
first  through  private  foundation,  but  the  passage  of  the  Morrill 
Act  in  1862,  by  which  large  land  grants  were  made  to  the  states 
for  the  support  of  instruction  in  the  agricultural  and  mechani- 
cal arts,  resulted  shortly  in  the  inclusion  of  engineering  de- 
partments in  most  of  the  western  colleges  and  universities. 
The  development  of  this  type  of  institution  has  been  wide- 
spread in  the  United  States,  and  has  produced  an  institution 
equal,  and  in  some  respects  superior,  to  anything  of  its  kind 
to  be  found  abroad.  The  function  of  such  schools  is  to  pro- 
duce engineering  and  technical  experts,  the  men  needed  to 
design  industrial  constructions,  to  devise  technical  processes, 
and  to  superintend  industrial  production. 

Manual  Training.  —  The  first  serious  agitation  for  the 
inclusion  of  industrial  training  in  the  public  schools  was  not 


Vocational  Education  649 

for  real  vocational  training,  but  for  the  inclusion  of  manual 
work  in  the  general  course  of  study  as  an  element  of  culture 
and  general  efficiency.  This  is  to  be  considered  in  a  sub- 
sequent section  of  this  chapter. 

Trade  Schools.  —  The  first  important  attempt  to  deal  with 
the  problem  of  industrial  training  in  day  schools  took  the  form 
of  a  trade  school  for  the  building  trades.  In  1881  the  New 
York  Trade  School  was  founded  by  Richard  T.  Auchmuty. 
The  founder  was  an  architect  by  profession,  and  felt  very 
keenly  the  small  part  played  by  American-trained  mechanics 
in  the  various  building  trades.  Convinced  that  the  apprentice- 
ship system  in  the  building  trades  was  no  longer  effective,  and 
that  modern  conditions  gave  no  hope  of  its  revival,  he  turned 
to  the  plan  of  a  trade  school  as  the  only  solution  of  the  problem. 
To  meet  the  economic  difficulties  involved  in  attendance,  the 
courses  in  the  school  are  only  four  months  in  duration,  and 
only  young  men  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  twenty- 
four  are  admitted.  The  aim  of  the  school  is  to  give  a  knowl- 
edge of  processes  and  a  skill  of  hand  sufficient  for  immediate 
practical  usefulness,  leaving  speed  and  perfected  skill  to  be 
developed  in  after  experience. 

The  development  of  schools  which  aim  to  take  the  place 
of  apprenticeship  after  this  point,  in  whole  or  in  part,  was  very 
gradual.  In  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  New  York  Trade 
School  was  founded,  only  two  important  institutions  were 
added,  viz.  the  Williamson  Free  School  of  Mechanical  Trades 
near  Philadelphia,  and  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Trade  School  of 
New  York.  Since  the  year  1910  some  ten  or  twelve  institu- 
tions that  may  strictly  be  called  trade  schools  have  developed 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  under  either  public  or  private 
support,  as  well  as  a  number  of  commercially  conducted  schools 
in  the  building  and  other  trades.  In  1907  the  trade  school 
entered  upon  the  stage  of  public  administration.  In  that  year 
the  already  established  Milwaukee  School  of  Trades  was  taken 
over  by  the  city  under  the  terms  of  the  industrial  education 


650  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

law  passed  by  the  Wisconsin  legislature.  Since  that  date 
public  trade  schools  have  been  opened  in  Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania;  Portland,  Oregon;  Worcester,  Massachusetts; 
and  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 

Certain  of  these  schools  —  the  New  York  Trade  School  and 
the  Baron  de  Hirsch  School  —  represent  the  short-course 
type ;  the  others  offer  courses  of  two  or  three  years  in  which 
practical  trade  training  is  supplemented  by  instruction  in 
drawing  and  technical  practice,  and  in  some  cases  by  science 
and  mathematics.  Tuition  in  such  schools  is  either  free  or  on 
a  nominal  basis,  a  condition  made  possible  either  by  large 
endowments  or  by  public  support.  Such  schools  are  still  some- 
what in  the  experimental  stage.  They  labor  under  very  severe 
economic  difficulties,  first  among  wrhich  is  the  problem  of 
support  presented  to  the  student  worker  during  the  period 
of  instruction.  Training  for  the  skilled  trades  in  the  United 
States  is  in  common  practice  restricted  to  the  period  above 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  as  the  great  bulk  of  the  youth  who 
will  form  the  mechanics  and  industrial  workers  of  the  country 
must  of  necessity  enter  upon  remunerative  work  at  sixteen 
or  shortly  after,  the  sacrifices  necessary  to  permit  attendance 
at  a  trade  school  can  be  expected  only  from  a  comparative 
few.  The  second  aspect  of  the  economic  problem  in  relation 
to  such  schools  is  found  in  the  large  expense  of  administration, 
instruction,  materials,  and  physical  maintenance  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  students  that  can  be  instructed.  Further- 
more, it  is  only  in  a  few  high-grade  trades,  the  full  command 
of  which  involves  extensive  subject  matter  and  breadth  of 
experience,  that  trade-school  training  can  claim  sufficient 
advantages  over  training  under  commercial  conditions  to 
repay  its  expense.  It  is,  consequently,  only  in  cities  repre- 
senting exceptional  concentration  of  such  industries  that  trade 
schools  can  expect  support,  and  it  is  not  yet  entirely  clear 
whether  the  results  obtained  will  prove  proportionate  to  their 
expense. 


Vocational  Education  651 

In  the  earlier  agitation  for  industrial  training  in  the  United 
States,  the  trade  school  occupied  the  forefront  of  discussion 
and  was  usually  considered  as  the  one  institution. needed  to 
solve  the  entire  problem,  but  as  the  great  economic  difficulties 
of  attendance  for  youth  and  young  men  who  are  to  become 
ordinary  workmen  have  come  to  be  better  apprehended,  it  is 
seen  that  such  institutions  can,  so  far  as  numbers  are  con- 
cerned, fulfil  only  a  very  subordinate  office.  This  office  in 
the  case  of  the  long-course  schools  will  probably  be  to  train 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  highly  equipped  workers  in 
a  few  of  the  skilled  trades. 

Preparatory  Trade  Schools.  —  Conditions  similar  to  those 
noted  above  in  the  case  of  England  have  recently  brought 
forward  in  the  Eastern  states  the  type  of  school  called  a  pre- 
paratory trade  school  or  intermediate  industrial  school.  The 
situation  of  the  fourteen-year-old  boy  in  the  United  States 
is  more  acute  even  than  in  England,  inasmuch  as  the  disin- 
clination on  the  part  of  employers  in  the  skilled  trades  and 
high-grade  industries  to  employ  youths  below  sixteen  years 
of  age  is  much  more  general.  Since  the  report  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Commission  on  Industrial  and  Technical  Education  in 
1906,  which  pointed  out  the  large  numbers  of  boys  and  girls 
in  that  state  who  leave  school  at  fourteen  before  graduation 
from  the  elementary  school,  the  demoralizing  influences  that 
surround  them,  and  the  lack  of  economic  progress  made  by 
such  children,  interest  in  a  type  of  industrial  school  that  shall 
aim  particularly  at  the  ages  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  has  been 
steadily  growing. 

The  first  school  of  this  type  to  be  established  was  at  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  in  1908.  Since  then  a  considerable  number  of 
schools  providing  practical  work  in  one  or  more  of  the  large 
trade  groups,  together  with  related  instruction  in  drawing, 
elementary  science,  history,  English,  shop  calculations, 
accounting,  and  business  forms,  have  been  organized  in  Mass- 
achusetts and  the  state  of  New  York.  Such  schools  aim  to 


652  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

give  the  advantage  of  some  degree  of  industrial  intelligence 
and  some  knowledge  of  shop  methods  and  materials  to  the 
boy  or  girl  of  sixteen  entering  upon  industrial  employment, 
rather  than  to  impart  a  trade  training. 

This  type  of  school  points  to  the  facts  that  forces  other  than 
the  purely  economic  enter  into  the  movement  fo,r  industrial 
education,  and  that  responsibilities  are  involved  in  the  con- 
duct of  such  education  beyond  those  of  developing  industrial 
efficiency.  The  causes  that  have  brought  into  being  the 
preparatory  trade  schools  in  the  United  States  are  not  alone 
the  economic  advantage  to  the  industries  in  preparing  better 
material  for  entrance  therein  —  an  advantage  that  employers 
would  be  quick  to  perceive  yet  slow  to  bring  about  —  but 
rather  the  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  public  of  a  social 
obligation  to  better  the  opportunities  for  great  numbers  of 
young  persons  to  enter  upon  more  substantial  careers.  These 
schools  also  serve  to  illustrate  the  fact  that  any  institution 
which  enters  upon  the  task  of  industrial  education  cannot 
escape  the  responsibility  of  advancing  at  the  same  time  the 
training  of  its  students  in  social  and  civic  efficiency.  It  is 
very  evident  that,  under  any  form  of  representative  govern- 
ment, no  school  that  does  not  attempt  to  instruct  the  indi- 
vidual in  his  relations  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  promote  his 
economic  efficiency  can  command  public  support  or  claim  a 
large  place  in  dealing  with  the  education  of  youth. 

Part-time  and  Cooperative  Plan.  —  The  two  schools  just 
described  aim  to  prepare  for  entrance  into  the  industries  by 
training  beginners,  a  task  economically  justifiable  only  when 
such  training  cannot  be  obtained  under  commercial  conditions. 
Of  late  years  new  types  of  school  —  the  part-time  day  school 
and  the  cooperative  school  —  that  aim  to  give  instruction 
to  the  individual  at  the  same  time  that  he  is  gaining  practical 
experience  in  the  industry  have  assumed  importance.  Such 
schools  do  not  attempt  the  entire  task  of  training  the  learner 
at  any  period,  but  divide  the  work  with  organized  industry, 


Vocational  Education  653 

leaving  to  industry  the  practical  training,  and  providing  in 
the  school  those  elements  that  industry  cannot  readily  supply. 
These  schools,  together  with  evening  industrial  schools  and 
correspondence  schools,  bring  formal  instruction  into  essentially 
cooperative  relations  with  industry,  avoiding  the  large  finan- 
cial burden  of  practical  trade  training,  with  its  many  diffi- 
cult problems,  and  undertaking  only  those  lines  of  instruction 
with  which  the  school  is  prepared  to  deal  readily  and  effectively. 
The  important  practical  results  of  the  German,  and,  in  par- 
ticular, the  Munich,  continuation  schools,  which  have  brought 
instruction  into  the  period  of  the  regular  working  day,  have 
produced  a  growing  conviction  as  to  the  importance  of  such 
schools  in  the  development  of  industrial  education  in  America. 
The  more  individualistic  spirit  under  which  industry  is  con- 
ducted in  the  United  States,  and  the  great  variety  of  condi- 
tions represented,  make  progress  toward  such  an  arrangement 
necessarily  a  very  gradual  matter,  and  it  will  undoubtedly 
be  a  considerable  time  before  manufacturers  will  reach  any 
general  agreement  to  allow  learners  in  their  establishments  to 
attend  industrial  schools  during  the  working  hours.  Never- 
theless, the  increasing  discussion  and  study  of  this  plan,  and 
the  recognition  of  its  important  advantages,  indicate  that  its 
considerable  extension  may  be  expected  in  the  near  future. 
Such  a  plan  is  more  rapidly  applied  in  cities,  where  the  con- 
centration of  a  few  high-grade  industries  gives  a  large  number 
of  apprentices  and  learners  in  particular  lines.  If  such  schools 
are  to  increase  beyond  the  field  of  these  few  skilled  trades,  it 
is  evident  that  the  problems  of  instruction  become  complex 
and  difficult.  In  the  case  of  low-grade  factory  industries, 
where  little  opportunity  for  technical  instruction  is  to  be 
found  in  industrial  content,  school  instruction  must  neces- 
sarily assume  other  directions  and  find  its  opportunity  in  in- 
creasing the  social  horizon  or  home-keeping  usefulness  of  the 
pupil,  or  in  aiding  to  develop  capacity  for  change  of  occupa- 
tion. It  is  evident  that  the  beginnings  of  such  schools  as  are 


654  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

represented  at  Cincinnati  and  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  must 
of  necessity  be  upon  a  voluntary  attendance  basis,  and  many 
years  must  obviously  elapse  before  public  opinion  in  the  United 
States  reaches  the  point  of  authorizing  compulsory  attend- 
ance for  a  term  of  years,  as  is  the  case  in  southern  Germany. 

The  cooperative  plan  by  which  the  students  spend  half 
their  time  at  work  in  industrial  establishments  and  half  in 
school,  and  which  was  first  developed  in  the  Engineering 
Department  of  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  has  lately  been 
applied  to  students  of  high  school  grade.  This  plan  differs 
from  the  part-time  plan  in  some  important  respects.  In  the 
first  place  the  student  body  consists  of  enrolled  high  school 
students  and  not  of  apprentices  already  employed  in  com- 
mercial establishments.  This  fact  insures  a  higher  grade  of 
academic  preparation  than  is  generally  the  case  with  appren- 
tices, and  the  larger  amount  of  time  spent  in  school  allows 
the  general  education  to  be  carried  much  further.  Encourag- 
ing beginnings  have  been  made  with  this  type  of  school  at 
Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio  ;  but  it  is  too 
early  to  define  its  future  place.  Whether,  on  the  one  hand,  any 
considerable  number  of  those  aiming  at  and  fitted  for  regular 
mechanic's  work  in  the  trades  will  be  drawn  to  such  schools, 
or  whether,  on  the  other  hand,  the  schools  will  develop  ca- 
pacity for  training  leaders  of  the  foreman  and  expert  type, 
remains  to  be  seen. 

In  this  same  group  of  supplementary  or  cooperating 
schools  might  be  included  the  correspondence  schools,  which 
enroll  a  great  number  of  young  men  engaged  in  industrial 
employment  in  the  United  States,  and  afford  instruction  by 
mail  in  a  large  number  of  technical  subjects. 

Apprenticeship  and  Corporation  Schools.  — The  apprentice- 
ship or  corporation  school,  which  has  been  developed  in 
several  industrial  corporations  of  large  size  in  the  United 
States,  is  in  a  sense  a  part-time  school  in  which  both  instruc- 
tion and  practical  training  are  given  within  the  commercial 


Vocational  Education  655 

establishment.  Such  a  plan,  which  allows  a  maximum 
coordination  of  all  lines  of  instruction,  will  probably  be 
increasingly  adopted  in  the  case  of  railroads  and  other 
large  corporations  dealing  with  high-grade  workers ;  but 
for  the  great  majority  of  industrial  establishments  such 
a  system  is  hardly  practicable,  and  division  of  labor  between 
the  employer  on  the  one  hand  and  the  public  school  on  the 
other  is  the  method  making  for  greatest  efficiency  and 
economy. 

Secondary  Technical  Schools.  —  The  middle  technical  schools 
of  Germany  have  no  exact  counterpart  in  the  United  States, 
but  the  several  schools  for  the  textile  industry  correspond 
closely  to  this  type.  Most  prominent  among  these  institu- 
tions are  the  Textile  School  of  the  Pennsylvania  Museum  at 
Philadelphia,  established  1884  and  noted  for  the  high  grade 
of  its  instruction,  three  state-aided  schools  in  Massachusetts, 
at  Lowell,  New  Bedford,  and  Fall  River,  and  the  Textile 
Department  of  the  Georgia  School  of  Technology  at  Atlanta. 
None  of  these  schools  requires  previous  practical  training 
in  the  textile  industry  for  admission,  but  in  each  school  there 
are  a  number  of  mature  students  with  such  experience,  and 
the  character  of  the  work  approximates  closely  to  that  of 
the  German  schools. 

Of  late  years  other  technical  schools  or  classes  of  secondary 
rank  have  appeared,  such  as  the  day  courses  in  machine 
design  and  applied  electricity  of  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn, 
the  Technological  High  School  of  the  Ohio  Mechanics  In- 
stitute at  Cincinnati,  and  certain  courses  in  the  Drexel  In- 
stitute, Philadelphia,  and  in  the  Lewis  Institute  of  Chicago. 

Technical  High  Schools.  —  The  question  whether  technical 
high  schools  with  the  same  requirements  of  admission  as 
regular  public  secondary  schools  can  be  incorporated  into  the 
American  public  school  system  has  received  considerable 
discussion  of  late  years.  The  manual  training  schools,  as 
above  noted,  do  not  contribute  trained  workers  to  the  in- 


656  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

dustries,  and  strong  arguments  have  been  made  toward  the  con- 
version of  these  schools  into  technical  high  schools,  having  the 
distinct  purpose  of  preparing  pupils  for  industrial  leadership ; 
that  is,  for  positions  in  industrial  life  requiring  skill  and  techni- 
cal knowledge,  and  of  greater  importance  and  responsibility 
than  those  of  skilled  mechanics.  The  serious  question  facing 
such  a  proposition  is  whether  such  results  can  be  secured  from 
a  type  of  school  that  does  not  require  practical  experience 
before  entrance,  as  in  the  case  of  the  German  technical  schools, 
or  provide  parallel  experience,  as  in  the  case  of  the  cooperative 
schools. 

Legislation.  — •  Laws  have  been  passed  in  a  number  of  states 
providing  for  state  supervision  of  industrial  education  and 
in  several  cases  for  the  establishment  and  assistance  of  in- 
dustrial and  trade  schools.  Massachusetts  was  the  first  to 
act  in  this  direction.  In  1906  a  State  Commission  on  In- 
dustrial Education  was  created,  with  power  to  superintend  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  industrial  schools  for  boys 
and  girls.  The  act  further  provided  for  the  reimbursement 
to  cities  and  towns  of  a  part  of  the  amount  expended  for  the 
support  of  such  schools.  After  two  years  of  trial,  the  plan 
of  an  independent  commission  was  found  to  be  unsatisfactory, 
and  the  administration  of  the  law  was  vested  in  the  reor- 
ganized State  Board  of  Education,  with  provision  for  a  special 
commissioner  to  deal  with  the  field  of  industrial  education. 
Since  the  reorganization  the  state  board  has  accomplished 
very  important  work  in  standardizing,  as  to  scope,  courses 
of  study,  and  methods  of  instruction,  the  various  types  of 
schools  that  come  under  its  control,  as  well  as  in  furthering 
the  establishment  of  a  considerable  number  of  schools. 

New  York  State  enacted  a  law  in  1909  authorizing  the  estab- 
lishment of  general  industrial  schools,  trade  schools,  and  schools 
of  agriculture,  mechanical  arts,  and  home  making,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  award  to  such  schools  of  a  certain  measure  of 
state  support.  The  disbursement  of  state  moneys  to  the 


Vocational  Education  657 

schools  is  by  the  terms  of  the  act  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education  and  made  dependent  upon  its 
approval  of  the  courses  of  study  maintained.  The  estab- 
lishment and  conduct  of  these  schools  is  referred  to  the  local 
boards  of  education,  but  the  appointment  of  advisory  boards 
representing  the  local  trades,  industries,  and  occupations  is 
made  compulsory.  The  duties  of  such  advisory  boards  are 
to  counsel  with  and  advise  the  boards  of  education  in  regard 
to  the  establishment  and  conduct  of  the  schools. 

In  1907  a  law  was  passed  in  the  state  of  Wisconsin  empower- 
ing cities  or  school  districts  to  establish,  conduct,  and  maintain 
schools  for  the  purpose  of  giving  practical  instruction  in  the 
useful  trades,  and  placing  such  schools  under  the  supervision 
and  control  of  the  local  school  boards.  Permission  was  given 
to  the  school  boards  to  appoint  advisory  committees  to  assist 
in  the  administration  of  the  trade  schools,  and  provision  was 
made  for  the  levy  of  a  special  local  tax  for  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  such  schools.  The  law  was  amended 
in  1909,  and  the  minimum  age  of  entrance  to  a  trade  school 
reduced  from  sixteen  years  to  fourteen  years  for  both  young 
men  and  young  women.  In  1911  the  state  passed  a  number 
of  acts  relating  to  industrial  education,  which  among  other 
measures  provide :  (i)  for  a  modification  of  the  apprenticeship 
laws  of  the  state  by  which  apprentices  shall  receive  instruction 
for  not  less  than  five  hours  a  week;  (2)  that  whenever  any 
evening  school,  continuation  classes,  industrial  school,  or  com- 
mercial school  shall  be  established  for  minors  between  the 
ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen,  working  under  permit  provided 
by  law,  every  such  child  shall  attend  such  school  not  less  than 
five  hours  per  week  for  six  months  in  each  year,  and  every 
employer  shall  allow  all  minor  employees  over  fourteen  and 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  a  corresponding  reduction  in  hours 
of  work ;  (3)  that  employers  shall  allow  a  reduction  in  hours 
of  work  at  the  time  when  the  classes  are  held  whenever  the 
working  time  and  that  of  the  class  coincide ;  (4)  that  a  state 

2  U 


658  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

board  of  education  be  appointed  to  control  the .  distribution 
of  state  moneys  under  the  act. 

Other  states  have  recognized  industrial  education  through 
legislative  measures  to  the  extent  of  providing  official  machinery 
for  the  development  and  supervision  of  such  work,  and  in  still 
other  states  investigating  commissions  have  been  appointed 
with  the  object  of  ultimate  legislation  in  this  direction. 

MANUAL  TRAINING.  —  In  spite  of  many  objections,  the 
term  "  manual  training  "  has  come  to  be  generally  applied 
to  all  forms  of  constructive  handwork  when  used  as  an  agent 
in  general  education.  When  used  in  the  broadest  sense,  in- 
struction in  domestic  art  and  science,  and  constructive  work 
in  various  materials  in  the  lower  grades  are  included.  In 
a  narrower  conception,  the  term  is  restricted  to  work  with 
mechanical  tools  given  to  boys.  The  tendency  in  American 
usage  is  to  distinguish  sharply  between  manual  training  as 
a  feature  of  general  education  and  specialized  tool  instruction 
given  to  selected  groups  for  purely  vocational  ends. 

Educational  Value.  Underlying  Theory.  —  In  the  early 
agitation  for  the  introduction  of  manual  training  in  the  eighties, 
the  claims  put  forward  for  the  new  subject  were  in  the  main 
based  on  the  conception  of  formal  discipline.  Manual  train- 
ing was  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  school  because  it  exercised  the 
observation,  trained  the  reasoning  powers,  and  strengthened 
the  will.  Although  it  is  doubtless  true  that  public  support 
of  the  new  movement  was  due  to  a  vague  but  sincere  con- 
viction that  the  introduction  of  handwork  stood  for  industrial 
training,  educators  as  a  rule  most  carefully,  refrained  from 
advancing  a  claim  for  utilitarian  value  in  the  work,  and  all 
utterances  were  for  the  most  part  expressed  strictly  in  terms 
of  the  prevailing  faculty  psychology. 

The  early  practice  of  manual  training  in  the  elementary 
school  was  experimental  and  formal.  The  type  exercise  was 
the  universal  form  in  which  handwork  appeared,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  influence  emanating  from  the  Slovd  School  of 


Vocational  Education  659 

Boston  (established  in  1888)  began  to  be  felt  that  toolwork  for 
boys  assumed  a  more  invigorating  form.  The  fundamental 
principle  of  sloyd,  which  places  emphasis  on  the  value  of 
working  for  a  useful  end,  and  so  enlisting  the  interest  of  the 
worker,  soon  found  acceptance  in  the  general  practice  in  the 
elementary  school,  and  to  a  certain  extent  modified  the  methods 
of  the  manual  training  high  school. 

About  the  same  period,  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline 
began  to  lose  its  place  as  the  corner  stone  of  manual  training 
philosophy.  By  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the 
conviction  had  developed  that  constructive  work  comes  into 
natural  relations  with  the  worker  only  when  he  contributes 
something  of  his  own  thought  to  attain  the  end  placed  before 
him.  Out  of  this  attitude,  aided  by  a  deeper  study  of  the 
thought  of  such  educational  leaders  as  Froebel,  Pestalozzi, 
and  Herbart,  and  clarified  by  the  emphasis  of  the  psychologists 
on  the  unity  of  the  mental  processes,  has  developed  the  con- 
ception of  manual  training  as  a  means  of  expression  —  a  means 
of  expression  in  terms  of  form,  color,  materials,  muscular 
activity,  and  concrete  ends — -a  means  of  expression  peculiarly 
adapted  to  child  life. 

During  the  last  seven  or  eight  years  the  growing  emphasis 
placed  upon  the  social  meaning  of  education  has  caused  atten- 
tion to  be  turned  more  and  more  to  the  subject  matter  or 
content  side  of  manual  training,  and  the  conception  of  manual 
training,  at  least  in  the  elementary  school,  has  come  more 
and  more  to  be  that  of  an  educational  instrument  interpreting 
the  fields  of  art  and  industry  in  terms  adapted  to  child  life 
and  the  limitations  of  the  school. 

All  of  this  development  in  the  philosophy  of  manual  training 
has  tended  away  from  the  employment  of  self-contained, 
formal  courses  towards  the  use  of  handwork  as  a  medium  of 
social  experiences  leading  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
One  of  the  most  complete  expressions  of  this  idea  is  the  employ- 
ment of  constructive  activities  in  the  lower  grades  in  the  form 


660  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  social  occupations,  which  serve  as  centers  for  instruction  in 
other  branches.  This  type  of  work  was  developed  to  a  notable 
extent  in  the  University  Elementary  School  conducted  by 
Professor  John  Dewey  from  1896  to  1905  in  connection  with 
the  University  of  Chicago. 

Content  of  Course.  —  The  early  work  in  manual  training 
in  the  elementary  school  was  almost  uniformly  limited  to  the 
two  or  three  upper  grades,  and  consisted  of  shopwork  for  boys 
and  sewing  and  cooking  for  girls.  From  these  grades  hand- 
work slowly  made  its  way  downward,  and  at  the  present  time 
such  work,  dealing  with  a  variety  of  materials,  is  given  in  all 
grades  in  many  of  the  larger  cities.  The  report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education  for  1910  states  that  in  more  than 
seven  hundred  cities  of  the  United  States,  public  schools  have 
manual  training  in  several  years  of  the  course,  generally  in 
the  elementary  grades,  but  frequently  in  all  the  years  from 
kindergarten  through  the  high  school. 

Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Various  National  Systems. 
-  Manual  training  was  first  recognized  as  a  valuable  feature 
of  school  work  in  European  countries.  As  early  as  1858 
Otto  Cygnaeus,  who  later  organized  the  public  schools  of 
Finland  on  a  modern  basis,  outlined  a  plan  of  handwork  for 
the  primary  schools  of  that  country,  and  in  1866  some  form 
of  manual  work  was  made  compulsory  in  all  primary  schools 
for  boys  in  country  districts  as  well  as  in  the  training  colleges 
for  male  teachers. 

In  the  United  States,  manual  training  came  into  being 
partly  as  the  expression  of  a  new  educational  philosophy  and 
partly  from  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  public  with  the 
results  of  the  purely  bookish  curriculum  of  the  schools.  The 
first  appearance  of  constructive  work  for  clearly  definite 
cultural  purposes  appears  to  have  been  in  connection  with  the 
classes  of  the  Workingmen's  School  founded  in  1878  by  the 
Ethical  Culture  Society  of  New  York.  In  1880,  through 
the  efforts  of  Dr.  Calvin  A.  Woodward,  the  St.  Louis  Manual 


Vocational  Edit  cation  66 1 

Training  School  was  opened  in  connection  with  Washington 
University.  This  school  was  a  completely  equipped  high 
school,  giving  instruction  in  various  lines  of  shopwork  and  in 
mechanical  drafting,  as  well  as  in  the  regular  secondary  school 
subjects  with  exception  of  the  classics.  The  work  of  this 
school  attracted  wide  attention,  and  the  success  with  which 
mechanic  arts  instruction  had  been  incorporated  in  the  cur- 
riculum led  to  the  rapid  organization  of  similar  schools  in  other 
large  cities.  In  Chicago,  Toledo,  Cleveland,  and  Cincinnati 
privately  supported  schools  were  organized  from  1884  to 
1886,  and  public  manual  training  schools  were  established 
in  Baltimore  in  1884,  Philadelphia,  1885,  and  Omaha,  1886. 
The  first  provision  for  girls'  work  in  these  schools  was  made  in 
the  case  of  the  Toledo  Manual  Training  School,  and  included 
sewing,  dressmaking,  millinery,  and  cooking.  The  shopwork 
instruction  given  in  these  institutions  comprised  joinery, 
turning,  pattern  making,  forging,  and  machine  work,  and 
sometimes  foundry  practice  and  tinsmithing.  The  character 
of  this  work  has  been  very  similar  in  different  schools,  and 
until  late  years  has  been  almost  uniformly  based  upon  the 
principles  of  the  "  Russian  System,"  so  called  because  the 
ideas  involved  first  gained  recognition  in  the  United  States 
through  the  exhibit  of  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of  St. 
Petersburg  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  1876.  The 
central  idea  of  this  system  of  shopwork  instruction,  which  was 
developed  in  a  technical  school  for  the  instruction  of  engineers, 
is  the  analysis  of  a  craft  into  its  fundamental  processes  and 
typical  constructions,  and  the  presentation  of  these  elements 
in  an  orderly  and  sequential  scheme  as  separate  exercises. 

The  rapid  development  of  this  type  of  secondary  school, 
which  has  continued  steadily  since  its  inception,  has  resulted 
in  an  institution  peculiarly  American.  In  other  countries 
the  introduction  and  spread  of  manual  training  has  been  con- 
fined to  the  elementary  school,  and  no  institution  of  a  purely 
educational  character  exists  in  Europe  that  represents  any 


662  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

parallel  to  the  comprehensive  and  costly  equipment  of  these 
schools,  nor,  it  should  be  said,  to  their  rather  vague  and  indefi- 
nite educational  status.  Established  with  the  double  purpose 
of  affording  a  more  liberal  and  realistic  training  for  boys  of 
secondary  school  age,  and  of  developing  capacities  for  in- 
dustrial careers,  the  records  show  that  apart  from  the  large 
number  that  go  forward  into  engineering  schools,  only  a  trivial 
percentage  of  graduates  'from  manual  training  high  schools 
enter  directly  into  industrial  work,  and  that  this  small  number 
go  almost  wholly  into  the  "  white  shirt  "  occupations  of  drafts- 
man or  administrative  assistant.  Of  late  years  a  tendency 
has  become  apparent  to  intensify  the  industrial  side  of  the 
curriculum  in  such  schools,  and  to  transform  them  into  techni- 
cal schools  with  a  definite  vocational  basis. 

Industrial  Education  and  Manual  Training.  —  With  the 
attention  given  to  industrial  education  in  the  United  States 
of  late  years,  manual  training  has  undoubtedly  lost  something 
of  its  importance  in  the  public  mind.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  this  attitude  is  only  temporary ;  for  all  thoughtful  con- 
sideration agrees  that  manual  training  in  elementary  schools 
constitutes  an  invaluable  basis  and,  under  the  peculiarly  un- 
settling influences  of  American  life,  a  most  necessary  founda- 
tion for  an  effective  system  of  industrial  education.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  seems  probable,  from  many  experiments  now 
being  conducted,  that  a  semivocational  or  a  prevocational 
type  of  manual  training  is  likely  to  assume  importance  in 
large  cities,  which  will  afford  to  boys  and  girls,  compelled 
to  leave  school  at  the  compulsory  age  limit,  an  elective  op- 
portunity for  one  or  two  years  before  that  time  to  acquire  some 
measure  of  industrial  intelligence  and  to  learn  from  a  number 
of  industrial  experiences  the  general  field  for  which  they  may 
be  best  fitted.  Recent  development  has  all  been  along  the 
latter  line,  though  no  one  type  of  school  has  demonstrated 
its  superiority. 


Vocational  Education  663 

COMMERCIAL   EDUCATION 

ORIGIN  AND  NEED  OF  COMMERCIAL  EDUCA- 
TION. —  Commercial  education  is  now  generally  understood 
to  include  all  education  which  prepares  specifically  for  busi- 
ness careers.  It  is  no  longer  limited  to  the  narrowly  tech- 
nical or  practical  training  which  fits  the  student  to  perform 
the  various  operations  that  are  necessary  in  the  exchange  of 
commodities,  but  it  is  generally  taken  to  exclude  the  training 
that  prepares  for  the  work  of  production.  With  the  practical 
training  there  is  usually  associated  a  certain  amount  of  the 
liberal,  or  cultural,  element  of  education.  The  proportion 
of  this  element  differs  widely  in  the  almost  innumerable  forms 
of  commercial  education  found  in  the  United  States  and  in 
foreign  countries.  In  some  it  is  practically  nil ;  in  others, 
it  comprises  over  nine  tenths  of  the  whole  amount  of  time  given 
to  study. 

Recognition  of  this  branch  of  education  has  been  somewhat 
tardy,  and  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  complete  even  now.  One 
reason  for  this  is  obviously  the  fact  that  a  century  ago  the 
transaction  of  business  was  a  simple  matter  compared  with 
the  complexity  of  our  present  organization.  Commercial  life 
itself  was  not  very  highly  developed,  and  was,  indeed,  con- 
sidered too  humble  a  form  of  activity  for  the  exercise  of  great 
talents,  or  for  any  special  preparation.  All  this  has  been 
changed  now.  Commerce  has  so  extended  its  sphere  and 
has  so  developed  its  organism  that  it  has  become  a  field 
for  the  greatest  intellects.  Thorough  preparation  for  it  has 
become  recognized  as  necessary,  though  there  are  still  great 
divergences  of  opinion  as  to  the  form  this  preparation  should 
take.  Until  recently  it  was  not  thought  to  be  a  function  of 
either  public  or  private  schools  —  not  a  function  of  education, 
in  the  sense  the  word  was  used.  For  that  matter,  the  very  com- 
bination of  the  words  "  commercial  education  "  is  somewhat 
anomalous.  Opposition  to  the  conjunction  came  from  both  cle- 


664  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ments.  The  ideals  of  education  and  of  business  were  regarded 
as  directly  opposed.  The  earnestness  with  which  educators 
opposed  the  introduction  of  the  commercial  aim,  or  com- 
mercialism, into  their  methods  is  only  paralleled  by  the  cor- 
diality with  which  the  majority  of  business  men  condemned 
the  aims  and  methods  of  education  as  impractical  and  useless 
for  their  purposes.  Within  the  past  quarter  century  utterances 
by  each  party  to  the  detriment  of  the  other  have  been  frequent, 
but  they  are  nearly  absent  now. 

Recognition  of  commercial  education  has  come,  and  the 
two  warring  elements  have  been  partially  reconciled.  That 
they  have  been  brought  to  realize  the  essential  unity  of  their 
interests  and  their  mutual  helpfulness  is  not  the  least  impor- 
tant advance  made  by  education  in  the  past  quarter  century. 
For,  although  the  recognition  of  commercial  education  has  been 
tardy,  and  although  it  is  still  in  an  experimental  stage,  its 
growth  has  been  rapid  enough  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  useful- 
ness. If  the  figures  were  not  in  themselves  sufficient  proof  of 
the  fact  that  commercial  education  has  grown  in  response  to 
a  real  need  and  a  real  demand,  it  would  only  be  necessary  to 
examine  its  early  history  both  in  this  country  and  abroad. 

COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  PUBLIC  HIGH 
SCHOOL.  —  Commercial  education  in  the  public  schools  is 
still  in  the  experimental  stage.  It  has  never  been  conspicu- 
ously successful,  nor  has  it  until  recently  been  of  a  kind  that 
promised  much  advance  on  the  private  commercial  schools. 
It  has  made  its  way  with  difficulty,  and  there  is  still  a  good  deal 
of  suspicion  and  some  antagonism  directed  against  it.  In  its 
history,  the  weakness  of  our  public  educational  system  is  made 
apparent.  In  the  first  place,  our  educational  system  has 
nothing  of  the  compactness  and  unity  of  those  of  many  foreign 
countries,  notably  Germany.  Control  is  so  largely  local  that 
there  is  difficulty  in  instituting  a  new  movement  with  any  de- 
gree of  unanimity.  Much  time  and  energy  are  wasted  by  the 
several  states  and  cities  in  making  experiments,  and  much 


Vocational  Education 

more  time  is  lost  in  waiting  for  others  to  make  the  experime. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  even  such  so-called  "  innovation 
as  music,  drawing,  and  physical  training  obtained  recognition 
as  desirable  factors  in  public  school  education.  In  a  similar 
way,  the  introduction  of  commercial  studies  was  retarded  by 
the  lack  of  any  unified  system  and  the  general  conservatism 
of  educators.  Another  objection  was  that  there  was  no  place 
for  it.  In  the  primary  schools  it  was  of  course  out  of  the 
question.  The  secondary  or  high  schools  were  generally 
regarded  as  stepping  stones  to  college  and  were  dominated 
by  the  classical  element.  Certainly  commercial  studies  were 
not  academic.  And  although  only  a  small  part  of  the  students 
in  the  high  schools  went  to  college  it  was  felt  that  even  those 
who  did  not  should  be  given  a  substitute  in  the  way  of  culture, 
so  far  as  possible.  There  was  no  room  for  practical  or  voca- 
tional instruction.  Nor  were  there  any  properly  equipped 
teachers. 

But  the  demand  became  too  insistent  to  be  unheeded. 
Many  students  left  the  public  high  schools  early  in  their  course 
to  enter  the  private  business  schools,  where  they  might  obtain 
preparation  for  their  future  careers.  Naturally  there  was  some 
murmuring  on  the  part  of  taxpayers,  who  felt  that  the  public"" 
schools  they  paid  for  should  give  the  education  for  which 
their  sons  and  daughters  asked,  whether  it  looked  toward 
a  professional  or  a  business  career.  Scientific  courses  were 
given  in  most  of  the  larger  high  schools — why  not  commercial? 
In  response  to  the  demand,  short  commercial  courses,  of  two 
years  (and  sometimes  of  only  one) ,  were  offered  in  many  high 
schools  before  1890.  The  movement  rapidly  extended  through- 
out the  country.  In  1893  there  were  15,220  students  in  the 
United  States  in  these  courses;  in  1895,  there  were  30,330. 
In  the  years  1893-1899  their  numbers  increased,  while  the 
enrollment  of  the  private  business  schools  decreased.  This 
might  seem  to  indicate  that  the  courses  were  successful  and 
were  a  good  substitute  for  the  private  commercial  school 


666  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

courses.  Such  was  far  from  being  the  case.  The  majority 
of  them  were  poor ;  some  were  bad.  They  had  come  because 
the  demand  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  but  they  had  little 
encouragement  from  above.  The  public  educational  system 
had  simply  accepted  them  as  a  necessary  evil,  and  had  slavishly 
imitated  the  private  schools.  The  methods  and  the  quality 
of  instruction  were  inferior.  There  was  little  attempt  to 
relate  the  cultural  to  the  practical  studies.  A  few  new  and 
alien  branches  had  been  grafted  on  an  old  tree,  but  they  were 
poorly  nourished  by  it  and  did  not  grow.  The  short  com- 
mercial course  in  high  schools  was  distinctly  not  a  success, 
and  began  to  fall  into  disrepute.  The  work  of  its  graduates 
was  compared  unfavorably  with  that  of  regular  four-year 
students.  The  private  schools  improved  to  meet  the  new  com- 
petition, and  far  outstripped  the  public  school  courses,  ham- 
pered as  these  were  by  all  manner  of  difficulties.  This  is  seen 
in  the  statistics  of  attendance.  As  has  been  said,  the  number 
of  students  pursuing  commercial  courses  in  the  public  high 
schools  increased  in  1893-1898,  while  that  in  the  private  com- 
mercial schools  decreased.  In  the  next  five-year  period,  1898- 
1903,  both  increased  at  about  equal  rates.  In  1903-1908  the 
public  high  school  enrollment  in  commercial  courses  seems 
actually  to  have  decreased,  while  that  of  the  private  com- 
mercial schools  increased.  Doubtless  the  decrease  was  not 
so  great  as  the  government  statistics  make  it  appear,  because 
of  a  change  in  the  method  of  reporting.  Indeed,  the  average 
number  of  students  in  the  well-established  commercial  courses 
in  public  high  schools  has  shown  a  fairly  steady  increase  every 
year.  For  all  that,  the  public  school  has  not  been  a  successful 
competitor  of  the  private  school  in  the  latter's  own  field  of 
short  courses  and  purely  technical  training. 

Within  recent  years,  however,  a  movement  has  begun  which 
promises  to  place  commercial  education  upon  a  stable  basis 
in  our  public  school  system.  In  many  of  the  larger  cities 
of  the  country  since  1900  separate  high  schools  of  commerce 


Vocational  Education  667 

have  been  established.  As  early  as  1892,  far-sighted  educators 
saw  the  necessity  of  this,  if  commercial  education  were  to 
be  successfully  undertaken.  In  that  year  Professor  Edmund 
J.  James,  then  of  the  Wharton  School  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  a  notable  address  before  the  convention  of 
the  American  Bankers'  Association  at  Saratoga,  made  a  plea 
for  the  establishment  of  separate  commercial  high  schools. 
Interest  in  the  proposition  grew,  and  although  it  was  some  time 
before  results  showed,  there  was  a  general  tendency  to  lengthen 
and  broaden  the  commercial  courses  then  given  in  the  public 
high  schools.  In  1898  the  Central  High  School  of  Phila- 
delphia founded  a  separate  commercial  school  with  an  entirely 
distinct  curriculum.  Soon  after,  the  High  School  of  Com- 
merce in  New  York  was  opened.  Others  followed  in  Pitts- 
burgh, Chicago,  Brooklyn,  Washington,  and  other  cities.  In 
the  majority  of  these,  the  courses  given  were  not  materially  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  ordinary  high  school,  except  that  the 
classical  studies  were  generally  omitted,  and  commercial 
branches  were  taught.  They  had  the  advantage  of  segregating 
students  of  common  aim  and  of  affording  superior  facilities 
for  work.  The  length  of  the  course  was  ordinarily  four  years, 
instead  of  three,  two,  or  one,  as  in  the  commercial  course  of 
the  ordinary  high  school.  Beyond  these,  there  were  no 
very  great  advances  in  them.  They  were  better,  but  not 
essentially  different  from  the  earlier  type.  But  in  a  few  cities, 
notably  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  a  different  plan  was  put 
in  operation.  There  was  some  attempt  to  look  behind  the  de- 
mand for  commercial  education,  to  find  the  real  need,  and  to  fill 
it.  It  was  a  problem  to  be  solved,  and  the  school  set  itself 
to  the  task  of  solving  it.  If  a  business  career  was  to  be  the 
goal,  then  all  preparation  should  have  that  in  mind.  The 
whole  course  of  study  had  to  be  reconstructed  and  made  to 
serve  an  entirely  different  function  from  that  of  the  classical 
high  school.  Not  merely  the  commercial  branches  proper, 
but  all  the  studies  in  the  curriculum,  should  be  adapted  to 


668  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

business  needs.  This  was  the  solution  proposed.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  plan  has  been  slow,  partly  because  of  the 
need  of  much  experiment,  partly  because  of  the  dearth  of 
suitable  teachers.  It  was  not  an  easy  task  to  change  pedagogi- 
cal methods  to  fit  the  new  ideal.  Some  help  was  obtained 
from  the  study  of  German  and  other  foreign  commercial 
schools.  The  experimenting  is  still  going  on  and  much  re- 
mains to  be  done.  There  has  been  little  outward  change  in 
the  curricula  of  these  schools  recently,  but  inwardly  there 
has  been  great  development.  For  instance,  in  the  foreign 
languages,  a  fair  ability  in  speaking  is  regarded  as  more  im- 
portant than  reading.  In  biology,  chemistry,  and  the  like, 
the  commercial  importance  is  demonstrated.  Throughout 
the  list,  the  practical  application  of  knowledge  is  made  and 
new  relations  between  the  studies  shown.  The  whole  scheme  is 
becoming  a  unit,  rather  than  a  mixture  of  conflicting  elements. 
There  are  only  a  few  high  schools  of  this  type  in  the  country 
now,  but  two  recently  established  high  schools  of  commerce 
-  that  of  Boston  and  that  of  Cleveland  —  are  based  upon  this 
new  idea  of  commercial  education.  Many  of  the  older  ones 
are  gradually  tending  toward  it.  It  is  beginning  to  be  realized 
by  educators  that,  if  vocational  instruction  is  to  be  given  by 
the  public  schools,  it  should  be  given  whole-heartedly,  and 
not  in  a  grudging  acquiescence  to  a  demand.  It  should  pre- 
pare a  student  not  merely  to  accomplish  certain  set  tasks,  but 
to  grapple  with  new  problems. 

The  five-year  course  of  study  of  the  High  School  of  Com- 
merce of  New  York  City  is  as  follows  : 

FIRST  YEAR.  —  Required  :  English  (4) ;  German,  French, 
or  Spanish  (4)  ;  algebra  (4)  ;  biology  (with  especial  reference 
to  materials  of  commerce)  (4)  ;  business  knowledge  and 
practice 1  (6) ;  drawing  (second  half  year)  (i) ;  physical 
training  2  (2) ;  music  (i) ;  Total,  26  periods. 

1  Including  local  industries  and  government  of  the  City  of  New  York  (2) ; 
business  writing  (2) ;   business  arithmetic,  business  forms  and  methods  (2). 

2  Including  Physiology. 


Vocational  Education  669 

SECOND  YEAR.  —  Required  :  English  (3) ;  German,  French, 
or  Spanish  (4) ;  plane  geometry  (3) ;  chemistry  (with  especial 
reference  to  materials  of  commerce)  (4) ;  history l  (with 
especial  reference  to  economic  history  and  geography)  (3) ; 
stenography  (3) ;  drawing  and  art  study  (2) ;  physical  train- 
ing (2) ;  Total,  24  periods. 

Electives :  German,  French,  or  Spanish  (4) ;  bookkeeping 
and  business  forms  (3) ;  business  arithmetic  (i) ;  commercial 
geography  (i). 

THIRD  YEAR.  —  Required  :  English  (3) ;  German,  French, 
or  Spanish  (4) ;  geometry  and  algebra 2  (3) ;  physics  (5)  ; 
history  3%  (with  especial  reference  to  materials  of  commerce) 
(3)  5  physical  training  (2) ;  drawing  and  art  study  (i) ; 
Total,  21  periods. 

Electives :  German,  French,  or  Spanish  (4) ;  bookkeeping 
and  business  arithmetic  (3) ;  stenography  and  typewriting 
(3) ;  drawing  and  art  study  (2) ;  commercial  geography  (i). 

FOURTH  YEAR.  —  Required :  English  (3) ;  German,  French, 
or  Spanish  (4) ;  economics  and  economic  geography  (4) ; 
history  of  the  United  States  (with  especial  reference  to  indus- 
trial and  constitutional  aspects)  (4) ;  physical  training  (2) ; 
Total,  17  periods. 

Electives :  A  foreign  language  (4) ;  advanced  chemistry 
(4) ;  economic  biology  (4)  ;  trigonometry  and  solid  geom- 
etry (4) ;  elementary  law  and  commercial  law 4  (4) ;  ad- 
vanced bookkeeping,  business  correspondence,  and  office 
practice  (4) ;  stenography  and  typewriting  (4) ;  drawing 
and  art  study  (4)  ;  modern  industrialism  (i). 

FIFTH  YEAR.  — •  Required  :  English  (3) ;  logic,  inductive 
and  deductive  (3) ;  physical  training  (2) ;  Total,  8  periods. 

1  First  half  year,  Beginnings  of  Nations  to  1300  A.D.     Second  half  year,  Mod- 
ern History  to  1750. 

2  In  the  second  half  year,  students  may  elect  additional  stenography  and 
typewriting  or  bookkeeping  in  place  of  the  second  course  in  mathematics,  or 
may  give  double   time  to  mathematics   by   omitting   either   stenography  or 
bookkeeping. 

3  First  half  year,  English  and  colonial  history,  1620  to  1750.     Second  half 
year,  modern  history  (England  and  the  Continent),  1750  to  present  time. 

4  Students  who  do  not  elect  law  in  the  fourth  year  may  receive  instruction  in 
commercial  law  in  connection  with  advanced  bookkeeping. 


670  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Electives :  A  foreign  language  (4) ;  advanced  mathe- 
matics (4) ;  advanced  physics  (4) ;  industrial  chemistry  (4) ; 
economic  geography  (4) ;  nineteenth  century  history, 
Europe  and  Orient,  diplomatic  history,  United  States  and 
modern  Europe  (4) ;  banking  and  finance,  transportation 
and  communication  (4) ;  administrative  law  and  interna- 
tional law  (4) ;  accounting  and  auditing  (4)  ;  business 
organization  and  management  (4) ;  drawing  (4) ;  advanced 
economics  (3). 

It  is  too  early  to  obtain  more  than  a  glimpse  of  the  results 
of  the  new  type  of  commercial  secondary  school.  Undoubtedly 
it  is  an  advance  over  the  earlier.  The  instruction  given  is 
practical,  but  it  is  said  that  the  cultural  value  of  education 
is  by  no  means  lost.  It  is  certain  that  there  is  a  well-con- 
sidered and  intelligent  purpose  to  meet  the  real  needs  of  a 
large  body  of  students  for  whom  the  classical  high  school 
offers  no  attractions.  Some  high  schools  go  so  far  even  as 
to  plan  their  courses  to  meet  the  needs  not  only  of  those  who 
will  remain  until  graduation,  but  also  of  those  who  \vill  leave 
after  a  year  or  two.  High  schools  of  commerce  that  are 
working  along  these  lines  report  that  they  have  a  large  pro- 
portion of  students  who  would  not  enter  any  other  school, 
or  would  not  stay  for  any  length  of  time.  The  graduates  find 
it  easy  to  obtain  positions  in  business  life.  In  purely  mechani- 
cal lines  they  are  not  so  well  prepared  as  those  of  the  private 
commercial  schools,  but  in  capacity  to  acquire  new  knowledge 
and  ability  to  use  it  they  are  far  superior.  Many  of  them, 
indeed,  find  the  first-year  work  of  excellent  university  schools 
of  commerce  almost  elementary  for  them.  This  is  merely 
because  such  schools  are  so  few  in  number  that  the  university 
schools  have  not  been  thoroughly  correlated  with  them.  They 
suffer  from  the  general  lack  of  unity  in  our  education  plan, 
which  makes  it  difficult  for  the  student  to  gain  a  coherent, 
consistent  education  from  beginning  to  end,  other  than  that 
which  prepares  for  one  of  the  well-recognized  professions, 
such  as  law,  medicine,  teaching,  and  the  like. 


Vocational  Education  671 

A  similar  difficulty  under  which  they  labor  is  the  dearth 
of  well-trained  teachers.  These  the  university  schools  are 
beginning  to  supply.  A  beginning  at  least  has  been  made,  and 
it  is  not  too  much  to  expect  that  within  the  next  decade  the 
commercial  secondary  school  will  have  become  a  very  impor- 
tant part  of  our  public  school  system,  with  a  clearly  defined 
relation  to  the  other  parts.  More  than  that,  it  is  probable 
that  vocational  schools  of  other  types  will  have  gained  a  firm 
footing,  as  they  even  now  promise  to  do,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  commercial  high  school.  Many  cities  even  now  have 
vocational  high  schools  of  several  distinct  types. 

AGRICULTURAL   EDUCATION 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INTEREST  IN  AGRICUL- 
TURAL EDUCATION.  —  While  the  art  of  agriculture  has 
been  of  popular  interest  and  of  practical  necessity  since  the 
earliest  periods,  the  academic  study  of  the  sciences  underlying 
the  art  and  of  its  practical  processes  are  of  very  recent  de- 
velopment. In  the  late  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  cen- 
turies great  popular  interest  in  agriculture  arose,  partly  as  a 
result  of  the  social  and  political  changes  of  the  times,  partly 
as  an  accompaniment  of  the  industrial  and  economic  changes 
incident  to  the  industrial  revolution.  In  the  United  States 
one  result  was  the  formation  of  many  agricultural  societies. 
Such  societies  became  centers  of  agitation  for  the  promotion 
of  agricultural  schools.  A  few  such  schools  were  actually 
founded,  one  in  Maine  in  1821  and  one  in  Connecticut  in 
1824.  The  development  of  the  agricultural  interest  of  the 
South,  and  the  opening  of  the  Middle  West  transferred  the 
agricultural  interests  to  those  sections.  This  was  followed, 
especially  in  the  Middle  West,  by  a  similar  development  of  ag- 
ricultural societies  and  agitation  for  the  formation  of  agricul- 
tural colleges.  Two  such,  Pennsylvania  and  Michigan,  were 
founded  before  the  Civil  War.  This  movement  coalescing 


672  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

with  the  one  for  industrial  education  resulted  in  the  Land 
Grant  Colleges  established  by  the  first  Morrill  Act  of  1862. 

The  distraction  of  interest  and  the  unsettling  of  all  such 
efforts  consequent  upon  the  Civil  War,  together  with  the  great 
industrial  revival  following  the  war,  and  the  opening  up  of 
the  almost  unlimited  resources  of  the  great  West  again  with- 
drew most  interest  from  the  problems  of  agricultural  educa- 
tion. In  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the 
early  years  of  the  twentieth  century  other  conditions  are  forc- 
ing this  question  again  to  the  front  and  are  making  of  it  an 
educational  problem  of  national,  even  of  world- wide  importance. 
Among  such  conditions  are  the  expansion  of  the  public  domain, 
the  great  rise  in  prices,  especially  of  agricultural  products,  the 
decrease  or  cessation  of  the  export  surplus  in  the  agricultural 
crops  of  the  United  States,  the  fertility  exhaustion  of  farm 
lands,  the  relative  decrease  in  agricultural  population,  and  the 
general  recognition  that  the  existing  institutions  of  agricul- 
tural education  were  not  meeting  the  problem.  On  the  other 
hand,  advancement  in  the  field  of  applied  science  has  dem- 
onstrated vast  possibilities  in  the  application  of  science  to 
the  problems  of  agriculture.  All  of  these  have  done  much  to 
bring  the  question  of  agricultural  education  again  into  great 
prominence. 

AGRICULTURAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  SCHOOLS. - 
The  agricultural  colleges  have  done  much,  during  the  past  forty 
years,  to  prepare  the  way  for  an  extension  of  agricultural  in- 
struction and  to  stimulate  an  interest  in  the  subject.  The  very 
important  work  which  they  have  done  in  laying  a  foundation 
of  sound  agricultural  knowledge  was  a  necessary  prerequisite 
to  any  general  movement  for  the  extension  downward  of  agri- 
cultural instruction.  Knowledge  had  to  be  accumulated,  ex- 
tended, and  popularized  before  agricultural  instruction  below 
the  colleges  could  become  possible.  The  recent  activity  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  in  stimulating  and 
encouraging  the  many  efforts  looking  toward  the  extension 


Vocational  Education  673 

of  agricultural  knowledge  and  agricultural  instruction  have 
been  of  great  service.  The  movement  has  also  been  greatly 
aided  by  the  knowledge,  which  has  come  to  us  within  recent 
years,  of  what  European  states  and  nations  have  been  and 
are  doing  in  agricultural  instruction,  and  the  success  which 
has  attended  their  efforts.  The  work  of  France  in  particular 
has  been  an  inspiration  to  us.  Another  influence  which  has 
greatly  aided  the  movement  has  been  the  growing  realization 
that  this  nation  must,  ultimately,  be  a  great  agricultural 
nation,  and  that  our  present  wasteful  and  unintelligent 
methods  of  agriculture  will  not  do  for  the  future.  To  find  a 
means  of  disseminating  proper  ideas  as  to  how  best  to  con- 
serve and  to  improve  our  great  national  resource  has  been  a 
strong  motive  underlying  the  movement. 

Certain  movements  within  the  schools  themselves  have 
fitted  in  with  and  helped  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  develop- 
ment of  agricultural  instruction.  The  general  introduction  of 
nature  study  into  our  schools,  which  came  with  the  populari- 
zation of  science,  has  been  of  very  material  value  in  preparing 
the  way  and  in  developing  teachers  capable  of  taking  up  the 
agricultural  work.  The  still  more  recent  school  garden  move- 
ment, and  the  general  demand  for  more  practical  instruction 
in  the  public  schools,  both  elementary  and  secondary,  have 
also  contributed  their  share  in  preparing  the  way  for  the 
somewhat  general  introduction  of  agricultural  instruction. 
As  the  movement  has  grown  in  importance  and  definiteness, 
the  far-reaching  results,  both  economic  and  educational, 
have  come  more  clearly  into  view,  and  the  movement  in  turn 
has  begun  materially  to  change  our  conceptions  of  the  methods 
of  procedure,  purposes,  and  needs  of  the  rural  school  and  of 
the  high  school  in  particular,  and  bids  fair  to  modify  for  good 
our  whole  educational  work. 

Agricultural  High  Schools.  —  Schools  of  secondary  grade 
for  theoretical  and  practical  training  in  agriculture  exist  in 
France,  Germany,  Austria,  Sweden,  and  Japan.  The  ecoles 


674  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

pratiques  of  France,  first  established  in  1875,  of  which  there 
are  now  about  50  in  existence,  are  in  reality  secondary 
schools  for  the  training  in  agriculture  of  the  sons  of  peasant 
proprietors  or  small  farmers,  and  with  a  two-year  course 
of  instruction.  In  Germany  many  agricultural  schools  have 
been  established,  beginning  at  the  close  of  the  Realschulen 
course,  or  at  the  end  of  unter-sekunda  of  the  Gymnasia  or  Real- 
gymnasia,  in  which  natural  sciences  and  agriculture  take  the 
place  of  the  languages  and  mathematics  of  the  gymnasial 
course.  In  Japan  any  city,  town,  or  village  may  establish  a 
secondary  school,  if  the  local  finances  will  permit  of  so  doing 
without  detriment  to  the  elementary  schools  of  the  place. 
By  1904  there  were  57  such  schools  in  Japan,  and  the  number 
is  increasing  every  year. 

It  was  thirty  years  after  the  establishment  of  agricultural 
colleges  in  this  country  before  the  first  successful  agricultural 
high  school  was  established.  This  one,  established  in  1888, 
was  in  connection  with  the  University  of  Minnesota,  and  its 
success  was  pronounced  from  the  first.  By  1898,  however, 
the  number  of  agricultural  high  schools  had  only  increased 
to  10,  and  the  teaching  of  agriculture  in  the  normal  schools 
and  the  elementary  schools  of  the  country  had  only  begun. 
Since  then  the  development  of  secondary  instruction  in  agri- 
culture has  been  much  more  rapid,  though  the  development 
has  not  been  so  fast  as  in  the  case  of  agricultural  instruction 
in  the  elementary  schools. 

To  provide  instruction  in  agriculture  in  the  high  schools  is 
a  very  much  easier  problem  than  to  provide  such  instruction 
for  elementary  schools.  The  age  and  mental  capacity  of  the 
pupils,  the  nature  of  the  school,  and  the  character  of  its  work 
and  equipment,  all  tend  toward  a  specialization  in  subject 
matter,  and  specialized  agricultural  subjects  are  much  better 
organized  and  are  easier  to  teach  than  the  more  generalized 
work  of  the  elementary  school.  The  equipment  needed,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  more  extensive,  few  good  textbooks  of 


Vocational  Education  675 

secondary  grade  have  as  yet  been  provided,  just  what  is  to 
be  taught  has  not  as  yet  been  definitely  decided  upon  and 
put  into  practice,  and  the  number  of  properly  equipped 
teachers  is  relatively  small,  and  probably  will  continue  to  be 
much  less  than  the  demand  for  some  time  to  come. 

Statistics  collected  in  May,  1909,  showed  that  the  number 
of  agricultural  high  schools,  or  colleges  offering  definite  second- 
ary agricultural  courses,  had  increased  to  60 ;  that  346  public 
high  schools  were  teaching  agriculture  as  a  part  of  the  high 
school  course;  that  119  state  and  county  normal  schools  and 
1 6  agricultural  colleges  were  training  teachers  to  teach  agri- 
culture in  the  schools ;  that  a  number  of  private  secondary 
schools  were  aiding  in  the  work;  and  that  16  institutions 
offered  correspondence  or  reading  courses  of  secondary  grade. 
In  all  about  500  institutions  were  giving  secondary  instruc- 
tion in  agriculture  in  May,  1909,  and  the  number  has  materially 
increased  since  then.  Some  instruction  in  agriculture  is 
now  being  added  to  secondary  school  courses  so  fast  and  in  so 
many  parts  of  the  country  that  it  is  difficult  to  know  in  how 
many  schools  and  where  it  is  given. 

The  schools  giving  secondary  work  in  agriculture  may  be 
classified  as  follows : 

(a)  Secondary  schools  of  agriculture  in  connection  with 
the  colleges  of  agriculture.  The  Minnesota  school  is  of  this 
type,  and  similar  schools  of  agriculture,  or  two-year  or  three- 
year  practical  courses,  are  now  maintained  in  connection 
with  the  colleges  of  agriculture  in  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Cali- 
fornia, Colorado,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Florida,  Idaho, 
Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Maine,  Maryland,  Minnesota,  Mis- 
sissippi, Montana,  Nebraska,  Nevada,  New  Hampshire, 
New  Jersey,  New  Mexico,  North  Dakota,  Ohio,  Oklahoma, 
Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Porto  Rico,  Rhode  Island,  South 
Dakota,  Texas,  Utah,  Virginia,  Washington,  West  Virginia, 
Wisconsin,  and  Wyoming.  In  addition,  a  number  of  the 
agricultural  colleges  are  giving  instruction  which  is  secondary 


676  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  nature,  though  it  may  not  be  recognized  as  such.  The  16 
land  grant  colleges  for  the  colored  race  in  the  Southern  states 
are  in  large  part  secondary  schools,  their  subcollege  courses 
representing  at  least  two  thirds  of  their  work.  These  in- 
stitutions have  chosen  to  produce  a  large  body  of  practical 
negro  farmers  for  the  South  rather  than  to  produce  a  few 
highly  trained  negro  experts. 

(6)  Agricultural  high  schools  located  in  large  districts, 
such  as  those  in  Alabama,  Georgia,  Virginia,  and  Minnesota. 
Alabama  was  the  first  state  to  organize  such  schools,  and  now 
has  9,  one  located  in  each  congressional  district.  Each 
school  has  a  branch  experimental  station  connected  with  it; 
it  is  provided  with  land  for  experimental  and  instructional 
purposes ;  has  an  equipment  of  buildings,  animals,  and  ma- 
chinery; and  receives  a  state  appropriation  of  $4500  a  year 
for  maintenance.  Georgia  has  n  such  schools,  similarly 
located.  Land,  buildings,  and  equipment  were  furnished 
almost  entirely  by  local  contributions,  and  out  of  the  in- 
come from  fees  and  taxes  the  state  grants  about  $7500  a  year 
to  each  school  for  maintenance.  Each  school  has  not  less  than 
200  acres  of  land.  The  schools  in  each  state  give  a  four- 
year  course.  Other  states  having  somewhat  similar  schools 
are  California  and  Minnesota,  where  one  state  school  is  pro- 
vided ;  New  York,  with  three  such  schools ;  Oklahoma,  with 
one  such  school  provided  for  each  of  the  five  judicial  dis- 
tricts of  the  state ;  and  Virginia,  where  it  is  proposed  to  es- 
tablish one  in  each  of  the  ten  congressional  districts  of  the 
state.  In  Massachusetts  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  special- 
ized agricultural  high  schools  was  planned  by  the  State  In- 
dustrial Commission,  the  plan  being  to  locate  ten  schools  at 
different  places  in  the  state,  and  to  divide  the  state  into  ten 
large  agricultural  districts.  Under  the  supervision  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  which  succeeded  to  the  work  of  the  Industrial 
Commission,  about  a  dozen  schools  have  been  established. 
Some  of  these  have  the  county  as  a  basis,  some  the  town. 


Vocational  Education  677 

The  district  plan  is  perhaps  the  best  arrangement  for  such 
schools,  as  the  state  can  then  be  divided  into  natural  agricul- 
tural districts,  and  a  school  located  in  each. 

(c)  County  agricultural  high  schools,  as  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin.     The  first  of  these  was  established  in  Wisconsin 
in  1902,  and  four  are  now  in  existence.     These  schools  are 
built  and  equipped  at  the  expense  of  the  counties  where  they 
are  located,  but  the  state  makes  a  grant  of  $4000  a  year  for 
each  school.     The  Marathon  County  school  at  Wausau,  and 
the  Dunn  County  school  at  Menominee  were  opened  in  1902, 
and  similar  schools  have  since  been  opened  at  Marinette  and 
Winneconne.     The  course  of  study  in  each  is  two  years  in 
length,  and  contains  much  practical  and  little  academic  work. 
There  is  a  county  agricultural  high  school  also  at  Menominee, 
Michigan ;    and  Mississippi  has  recently  provided  for  state 
aid  of  $1000  a  year  to  county  agricultural  high  schools,  one 
to  be  located  in  each  county  in  the  state.     County  agricul- 
tural high  schools  are  also  to  be  found  in  Maryland.     Expe- 
rience so  far  seems  to  indicate  that  the  county  is  too  small  a 
unit  for  the  proper  equipment  and  maintenance  of  a  good 
agricultural  high  school. 

(d)  State  and  county  normal  schools.     Over  100  normal 
schools  in  the  United  States  were  giving  instruction  in  agri- 
culture in  1909.     In  some  schools  a  regular  course  is  given 
by  a  trained  agricultural  teacher,  while  in  others  the  work  is 
done  as  a  part  of  the  science  work.     In  all  such  schools  the 
aim  of  the  work  is  to  prepare  teachers  of  the  subject  for  work 
in  the  elementary  schools. 

(e)  Regular  high  schools,  offering  instruction  in  agriculture 
as  a  part  of  their  course  of  instruction.     In  such  schools  no 
uniform  plan  is  followed.     In  some  the  work  consists  of  but 
one  or  two  courses ;  in  others  a  number  of  elective  agricultural 
studies  are  offered  ;  while  in  still  others  a  regular  agricultural 
course  is  given  parallel  with  the  other  courses  of  the  school. 
In  a  few  schools  the  work  is  somewhat  limited  and  specialized 


678  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

along  such  lines  as  horticulture  or  floriculture.  Something 
like  400  schools  were  offering  such  instruction  at  the  close  of 
the  school  year  in  1909,  and  the  number  has  increased  since 
then.  In  Missouri  alone  over  200  high  schools  reported  some 
instruction  in  agriculture.  In  some  places,  and  even  through- 
out some  states,  the  existing  high  schools  are  being  reorganized 
so  as  to  make  them  in  large  part  agricultural  high  schools.  Cir- 
cular No.  pi,  Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  U.  S.  Department 
of  Agriculture,  gives  detailed  courses  of  instruction  in  horti- 
culture and  agriculture,  as  these  have  been  adopted  by  the 
Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment 
Stations. 

(/)  Private  schools,  or  semi-private  schools.  In  this  class 
should  be  placed  the  National  Farm  School,  at  Doylestown, 
Pennsylvania,  established  in  1896  to  provide  instruction  and 
practical  farm  work  for  about  40  boys ;  the  agricultural  de- 
partment of  the  Mount  Hermon  School,  near  Northfield, 
Massachusetts,  where  instruction  was  begun  in  1903  ;  the 
Smith  Agricultural  School  and  Northampton  School  of  Tech- 
nology, at  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  opened  in  1908  ;  the 
Winona  Agricultural  and  Technical  Institute  at  Winona  Lake, 
Indiana,  established  in  1902;  Tuskegee  in  Alabama;  and  a 
number  of  privately  endowed  colleges,  which  afford  secondary 
instruction  in  agriculture  as  a  part  of  their  work,  and  nearly  all 
of  which  are  located  in  the  upper  Mississippi  valley.  The 
schools  at  Doylestown,  Northampton,  and  Tuskegee  also  re- 
ceive some  state  aid.  At  Groton,  Massachusetts,  a  school  of 
horticulture  and  landscape  gardening  for  women  has  been 
opened,  and  a  course  in  horticulture  is  now  given  at  Wellesley 
College. 

THE  PRESENT  PROBLEM.  —What  is  the  best  way  to 
develop  secondary  instruction  in  agriculture  is  as  yet  a  some- 
what unsettled  question.  Whether  it  is  better  to  aid  the 
present  school  system  to  evolve  agricultural  instruction  out 
of  the  present  work,  and  thus  make  agricultural  instruction 


Vocational  Education  679 

an  integral  part  of  the  regular  school  system ;  or  whether 
special  and  independent  schools  for  the  teaching  of  agriculture 
and  domestic  subjects  should  be  established,  has  not  as  yet 
been  decided.  The  latter  method  at  present  seems  to  meet 
with  greater  favor  from  practical  men,  but  many  educators 
favor  the  former  plan,  believing  that  the  inclusion  of  agricul- 
tural instruction  in  the  regular  work  of  the  secondary  schools, 
rather  than  its  separation  as  a  special  kind  of  education  for 
which  special  and  independent  schools  need  to  be  established, 
is  best  for  us  as  a  nation.  It  was  this  conception  of  the  unity 
of  all  education  which  led  to  the  opposition,  from  educational 
workers,  to  the  congressional  proposal  of  1908  to  grant  aid 
from  the  national  treasury  toward  the  establishment  of  sepa- 
rate secondary  schools  of  agriculture  in  the  different  states. 
It  is  probable  that  both  types  of  schools  will  be  needed,  and 
will  exist  side  by  side,  the  larger  and  more  specialized  schools 
being  organized  for  agricultural  districts,  as  was  proposed  for 
Massachusetts,  and  some  agricultural  instruction  being  intro- 
duced into  most  of  the  town  and  rural  high  schools. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  is  the  attitude  of  the  modern  trade  union  towards  industrial 
education  ? 

2.  What  is  the  attitude  of  the  modern  employer  or  of  organizations 
of  employees  towards  industrial  education  ? 

3.  What  are  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of  the  evening 
school  as  an  instrument  of  industrial  education  as  seen  in  concrete 
cases  ? 

4.  What  arc  the  merits  and  the  difficulties  in  the  actual  details  of 
arrangement  of  the  part-time    cooperative  plan  as  seen  in  American 
attempts  ?     In  German  ? 

5.  What  are  the  social  and  economic  conditions  which  render  desirable 
the  public  support  of  commercial  education  ? 

6.  What   place  has  commercial  education    in   public  high  schools  ? 
In  the  high  school  of  the  small  city  or  town  ? 

7.  Is  a  part-time  cooperative  plan  possible  or  desirable  in  the  com- 
mercial field  as  it  is  in  the  industrial  ? 


680  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

8.  What  are  the  merits  and  advantages  of  the  German  system  of 
commercial  education  over  our  own  ?    Of  that  of  any  other  European 
system  over  our  own  ? 

9.  What  is  the  attitude  of  the  business  or  commercial  classes  towards 
commercial  education  ?     How  can  cooperation  between  them  and  the 
school  be  brought  about  ? 

10.  What  differences  exist  in  the  social  and  industrial  conditions  at 
the  time  of  the  manual  training  movement  of  the  eighties  and  nineties 
and  similar  conditions  producing  the  industrial  and  trade   education 
demands  of  the  present  ? 

11.  What  differences  or  similarities  are  found  in  a  comparison  of  Amer- 
ican  conditions  with  those  of  any  one  European   country   where   in- 
dustrial education  has  been  developed  ? 

12.  What  can  we  learn  direct  from  the  industrial  or  trade  schools 
of  Germany  regarding  curriculum,  method,  or  organization  ?    Of  France  ? 
Of  any  other  European  country? 

13.  What  are  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  the  old  appren- 
ticeship system  of  industrial  training  over  the  present  ? 

14.  Trace  out  the  actual  workings  of  the  apprenticeship  system  of 
industrial  education  in  any  one  country  or  in  any  one  industry. 

15.  In  any  one  industry  or  in  any  one  community  what  are  the  diffi- 
culties existing  at  the  present  time  in  operating  a  system  of  industrial 
education  ? 

16.  What  facts  can  be  adduced  to  support  the  reasons  given  in  the 
text  for  the  decline  of  interest  in  agricultural  education  following  the  Civil 
War? 

17.  What  facts  can  be  adduced  to  support  the  reasons  given  in  the 
text  for  the  recent  growth  of  interest  in  agricultural  education  ? 

1 8.  What  should  be  the  relation  between  the  agricultural  colleges  and 
the  agricultural  high  schools  ? 

19.  What  should  be  the  relation  between  the  agricultural  colleges 
and   the   farming   population  ?     What   between   the   agricultural   high 
schools  and  the  farming  population  ? 

20.  What  concrete  problems  of  agriculture  can  be  studied  in  a  high 
school  course  in  agriculture  ? 

21.  What  are  the  merits  and  demerits  of  each  type  of  the  agricultural 
high  school  given  in  the  text  ? 

22.  What  can  we  learn  from  the  work  of  the  secondary  agricultural 
schools  of   Germany  applicable  to   conditions   in  the  United   States? 
From  France  ?     From  other  European  countries  ? 

23.  What  differences  in  curricula  should  be  made  between  the  various 
types  of  agricultural  secondary  schools  mentioned  in  the  text  ?     What 
in  method  ? 


Vocational  Education  68 1 

REFERENCES 

Industrial  Education 

A  comprehensive  bibliography  of  works  on  Industrial  Education  is 
given  in  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  pp.  521-539.  In  the  following  list  only  the  most  important  and 
most  accessible  titles  are  given. 

CARLTON,  F.  T.  Education  and  Industrial  Evolution.  New  York,  1908. 
CRP:ASEY,  C.  H.  Technical  Education  in  Evening  Schools.  London,  1905. 
DRAPER,  A.  S.  Our  Children,  our  Schools,  and  our  Industries.  Annual 

Report,  New  York  State  Education  Department.     Albany,  1908. 
DUTTON,  S.  T.,  and  SNEDDEN,  D.  S.     Administration  of  Public  Education 

in  the  United  States.     New  York,  1908. 
GERMER,  B.,  editor.     Die  Fortbildungs-  und  Fachschulen  in  den  grosser  en 

Or  ten  Deutschlands.     Leipzig,  1904. 

HANUS,  P.  H.     Beginnings  in  Industrial  Education.     Boston,  1908. 
HOWARD,  E.  D.     The  Cause  and  Extent  of  the  Recent  Industrial  Progress 

of  Germany.     Boston,  1907. 
KERSCHENSTEI.VER,   GEORG.     Organisation  und  Lchrpldne  der  obligato- 

rischenFach-  und  Fortbildungschulen  fiir  Knaben  in  Munchen.     Mu- 
nich, 1910. 
Jahresbericht  der  manulichen  Fortbildungs-  und  Gewerbeschulen  Miin- 

chcns.     Annual  since  1907.     Munich. 

Staatsburgerliche  Erziehung  der  deutschcn  Jugcnd.     Erfurt,  1909. 
KIMMINS,  C.  W.     Trade  Schools  in  England.     Elem.  Sch.  Teacher.     Vol. 

X,  pp.  209-219. 
LAUTZ,  TH.     Fortbildungs-  und  Fachschulen  fiir  Madchen.     Wiesbaden, 

1902. 
Massachusetts   Commission   on   Industrial   and   Technical   Education, 

Report.     Boston,  1906. 
Second  Annual  Report.     Boston,  1908. 
National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education.      Bulletins, 

New  York. 
New  York  State  Department  of  Labor.    26th  A  nnual  Report  of  the  Bureau 

of  Labor  Statistics,  Part  I.     Industral  Training.     Albany,  1909. 
PACQUIER,  J.  B.     L'Enseignement  professional  en  France;  son  Histoire; 

ses  differcntcs  Formes;  scs  Resultats.     Paris,  1908. 
PERSOX,  H.  S.     Industrial  Education.     Boston,  1907. 
Place  of  Industries  in  Public  Education.     Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.    1910. 
SADLER,  M.  E.     Continuation  Schools  in  England  and  Elsewhere.     Man- 
chester, 1908. 


682  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Technical  Education  in  France.  L '  Enseignement  technique  en  France. 
Etude  publiee  a  I' Occasion  de  V Exposition  de  igoo.  Paris,  1900. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor.  Conditions  of  Entrance  to  the  Principal  Trades. 
Bulletin,  No.  67,  1906.  Washington. 

U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor.  Industrial  Education.  Twenty-fifth  An- 
nual Report.  Washington,  1910. 

U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor.  Trade  and  Technical  Education.  Seven- 
teenth Annual  Report.  Washington,  1902. 

U.  S.  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor.  Industrial  Education  in 
Germany.  SpecialConsularReports,Vo\.~KKX.III.  Washington,  1905. 

WARE,  FABIAN.  Educational  Foundations  of  Trade  and  Industry.  New 
York,  1901. 

WRIGHT,  C.  D.  The  Apprenticeship  System  in  its  Relation  to  Indus- 
trial Education.  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  No.  6. 
Washington,  1908. 

Manual  Training 

BALDWIN,   W.   A.     Industrial   Social  Education.     Springfield,   Massa- 
chusetts, 1903. 
CLARKE,  I.  E.     Education  in  Fine  and  Industrial  Art  in  the  United  States. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education.     4  vols.     Washington,  1885-1898. 
Council  of  Supervisors  of  the  Manual  Arts  Year  Books.     1903-1909. 
DEWEY,  JOHN.     The  School  and  Society.     Chicago,  1899. 
DOPP,  KATHARINE.     The  Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary  Education. 

Chicago,  1903. 
Educational  Monographs.    New  York  College  for  the  Training  of  Teachers. 

New  York,  1888-1890. 

GOETZE,  WALDEMAR.     Hand  and  Eye  Training.     London,  1894. 
HAM,  C.  H.     Manual  Training.     New  York,  1886. 
Ireland,  Reports  and  Minutes  of  Evidence  of  the  Commission  on  Manual 

and  Practical  Instruction  in  Primary  Schools  under  the  Board  of 

Education  in.     7  vols.     London,  1897. 
Manual  Training  Magazine.     Peoria,  1899- 
N.  E.  A.  Various  Papers.     Proceedings,  1884- 

Report  of  Committees  on  Place  of  Industries  in  Public  Education,  1910. 
SALOMON,  OTTO.     Theory  of  Educational  Sloyd.     Boston,  1896. 
SCHMITT,  E.     La  Pedagogic  du  Travail  Manuel.     Paris,  1895. 
Teachers   College   Record.     The  Elementary   School  Curriculum.     New 

York,  1908. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education.     Reports.     Washington,  1887- 
WOODWARD,  C.  M.     The  Manual  Training  School.     Boston,  1887. 
Educational  Value  of  Manual  Training.     Boston,  1890. 
Manual  Training  in  Education.     New  York,  1891. 


Vocational  Education  683 

Commercial   Education 

BARBER,  E.  M.  A  Contribution  to  the  History  of  Commercial  Education. 
Brooklyn,  1903. 

Bulletins  of  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Dartmouth  College,  New  York 
University,  University  of  Wisconsin,  University  of  Chicago,  University 
of  California,  Harvard  University,  University  of  Iowa,  and  others. 

HARTOG,  P.  J.  Commercial  Education  in  the  United  States.  Board  of 
Education,  Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  XI.  Lon- 
don, 1902. 

HASKINS,  CHARLES  WALDO.  Business  Education  and  Accountancy. 
New  York  and  London,  1904. 

HERRICK,  CHEESMAN  ABIAH.  Meaning  and  Practice  of  Commercial 
Education.  New  York  and  London,  1904. 

HOOPER.  F.  and  GRAHAM,  J.  Commercial  Education  at  Home  and  Abroad. 
New  York  and  London,  1901. 

JAMES,  EDMUND  JANES.     Commercial  Education.     Albany,  N.  Y.,  1900. 
Education  of  Business  Men.     New  York,  1893. 

London  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Conference  on  Commercial  Education. 
London,  1898. 

London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science.  Brief  Report  of  the 
Work  of  the  School  since  1895.  London,  1899. 

Michigan,  Political  Science  Association.  Higher  Commercial  Education. 
Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  1903. 

Proceedings  and  Addresses  of  the  Department  of  Business  Education  in 
the  National  Education  Association,  1897-1909. 

Reports  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1885-1909. 

SADLER,  MICHAEL  E.  Higher  Commercial  Education  in  Antwerp,  Leip- 
zig, Paris,  and  Havre.  Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports,  Vol. 
III.  London,  1898. 

Recent  Developments  in  Higher  Commercial  Education  in  Germany. 
Board  of  Education,  Special  Reports,  Vol.  IX.     London,  1902. 

VANDERLIP,  FRANK  ARTHUR.  Addresses  on  Commercial  and  Technical 
Education.  New  York,  1905. 

WARE,  FABIAN.  Educational  Foundation  of  Trade  and  Industry.  New 
York,  1901. 

WHITFIELD,  E.  E.  Commercial  Education  in  Theory  and  Practice.  Lon- 
don, 1901. 

Agricultural  Education 

BAILEY,  L.  H.  On  the  Training  of  Persons  to  teach  Agriculture  in  the 
Public  Schools.  Bull.  No.  I,  1908,  U.  S.  Bur.  Educ.,  pp.  53,  2  pp. 
bibliography  on  agricultural  education.  Washington,  1908. 


684  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

BAILEY,  L.  H.     The  Training  of  Farmers,    The  Century  Co.,  1909. 
BAILEY,  L.  H.    Education  by  Means  of  Agriculture.    Cyclopedia  of  Ameri- 
can Agriculture.     Vol.  IV,  ch.  viii,  1909.     Historical  and  descriptive. 
BETTS,  G.  H.    New  Ideals  in  Rural  Schools.     Boston,  1911. 
CARNEY,  MABEL.     Country  Life  and  the  Country  School.     Chicago,  1912. 
CUBBERLEY,  E.  P.     Rural  Life  and  Education.     Boston,  1907. 
ELLIS,  A.  CASWELL.     The  Teaching  of  Agriculture  in  the  Public  Schools. 

Univ.  of  Texas,  Butt.  No.  85,  56  pp.     Austin,  1906. 
EGGLESTON,  J.  D.,  and  BRUERE,  R.  W.     The  Work  of  the  Rural  School. 

New  York,  1913. 

FISKE,  G.  W.     The  Challenge  of  the  Country.     New  York,  1912. 
FOGHT,  H.  W.     The  American  Rural  School.     New  York,  1910. 
JEWELL,  J.  R.     Agricultural  Education.     Bull.  No.  2,  1907,  U.  S.  Bur. 

Educ.,  140  pp.     Bibliography  of  123  titles.     Washington,  1907. 
HART,  J.  K.     Educational  Resources  of  Village  and  Rural  Communities. 

New  York,  1913. 

KERN,  A.  J.     Among  Country  Schools.     Boston,  1906. 
N.  E.  A.     Report  of  the  Committee  on  Industrial  Education  for  Rural  Com- 
munities, 1905.     97  pp.     Supplementary  Report  of  45  pp.  in  1907. 
Published  separately,  and  also  in  Proc.  N.  E.  A.  for  1905  and  1907. 
SEERLEY,  H.  W.     The  Country  School.     New  York,  1913. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Educ.     Annual  Reports. 

The  Teaching  of  Agriculture  in  the  Schools  of  France  and  Belgium ; 

in  Rept.  for  1905,  Vol.  I,  pp.  87-96. 

Agricultural  High  Schools;  in  Rept.  for  1909,  Vol.  I,  pp.  146-150. 
U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture ;   Office  of  Experimental  Station,  Circulars : 
No.  49,  TRUE,  A.  C.     Secondary  Courses  in  Agriculture.     10  pp.     1902. 
No.  60,  TRUE,  A.  C.     The  Teaching  of  Agriculture  in  the  Rural  Common 

Schools.     20  pp.     1904. 
No.  69,  TRUE,  A.  C.     A  Four  Years1  College  Course  in  Agriculture. 

36  pp.     1906. 

No.  73,  TRUE,  A.  C.     Country  Life  Education.     13  pp.     1907. 
No.  77,  TRUE,  A.  C.     A  Secondary  Course  in  Agronomy.     44  pp.     1908. 
No.  83,  TRUE,  A.  C.,  and  CROSBY,  D.  J.     The  American  System  of 

Agricultural  Education.     27  pp.  111.     1909. 

No.  84,  HAYS,  W.  M.    Education  for  Country  Life.     40  pp.     1909. 
No.  90,  ABBEY,  M.  J.     Normal  School  Instruction  in  Agriculture.    31  pp. 

1909. 

No.  91,  TRUE,  A.  C.  Secondary  Education  in  Agriculture  in  the  United 
States,  ii  pp.  1909.  Outline  courses  of  study  in  Horticulture 
and  in  Agriculture. 

U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture  ;  Office  of  Experimental  Stations,  Bulletins  : 
No.  186,  CROSBY,  D.  J.  Exercises  in  Elementary  Agriculture.  48  pp.   1907. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
HYGIENE   AND   PHYSICAL   EDUCATION 

HYGIENE.  —  Hygiene  (from  vytela,  hygiene,  health)  is 
usually  defined  as  the  science  that  treats  of  the  prevention  of 
disease  and  the  preservation  of  health.  It  is  especially  an 
applied  science,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  art.  It  aims,  in 
the  words  of  a  modern  writer,  "  to  make  growth  more  perfect, 
life  more  vigorous,  decay  less  rapid,  death  more  remote."  The 
positive  note  in  this  definition  of  aims  is  characteristic  of  recent 
hygiene.  It  is  no  longer  satisfied  with  the  mere  attempt  to 
prevent  disease,  but  it  emphasizes  especially  the  need  of  nor- 
mal healthful  development  and  the  acquisition  of  vigorous 
habits  of  health  that  shall  be  prophylactic  against  disease. 

PERSONAL  HYGIENE.  —  Personal  hygiene  consists  of 
two  important  parts,  somatic  hygiene  and  mental  hygiene. 
On  account  of  the  great  individual  differences  in  strength, 
endurance,  ability  to  work  and  to  resist  disease,  the  problem 
in  both  these  fields  must  be  an  individual  one.  Mental 
hygiene  is  quite  as  important  for  the  teacher  and  pupil  as 
somatic  hygiene,  and  the  teachings  of  mental  hygiene  and  the 
hygiene  of  instruction  are  so  important  for  sound  education 
that  for  pedagogical  as  well  as  hygienic  reasons  the  school 
cannot  ignore  them. 

The  subject  has  also  important  social  aspects.  In  its  wider 
sense  personal  hygiene  is  the  very  basis  of  disease  prevention 
and  health  preservation.  All  plans  for  community  or  national 
freedom  from  disease  must  rest  upon  and  depend  upon  the 
care  with  which  the  individual  members  of  society  settle 
their  problems  in  personal  hygiene.  If  every  member  of  any 

685 


686  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

given  social  unit  would  persistently  apply  his  rights  of  fran- 
chise in  favor  of  more  stringent  and  effective  laws  of  hygiene 
and  sanitation,  the  problems  of  personal  hygiene  would  be 
far  easier.  The  difficulties  of  personal  health  control  are 
largely  difficulties  which  are  of  a  community  origin.  The 
transgressions  of  one  member  of  a  community  are  visited 
upon  the  lives  of  his  innocent  fellow  citizens.  Equity  in 
matters  of  this  kind  is  secured  only  through  law  backed  by 
strong  popular  sentiment.  Then,  if  every  member  of  any 
given  social  unit  is  protected  from  hygienic  or  sanitary  injury 
inflicted  by  his  fellow  citizens,  he  may  organize  his  policy  of 
personal  health  control  with  every  prospect  of  success.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  would  be  possible  to  develop  a  com- 
munity in  which  each  member  practiced  intelligent  habits  of 
bodily  nourishment,  supervising  the  food  he  would  eat,  the 
food  he  would  drink,  and  the  food  he  would  breathe ;  intelli- 
gent habits  of  excretion ;  intelligent  habits  of  exercise ;  in- 
telligent habits  of  rest ;  and  intelligent  habits  of  cleanliness. 
Men  of  such  habits  are  men  of  health,  men  of  strength,  men 
of  efficiency.  A  community  or  a  nation  with  such  habits 
would  have  solved  the  problem  of  prevention  of  disease  and 
have  conserved  its  resources  in  terms  of  human  life,  human 
happiness,  and  human  prosperity,  with  all  that  such  con- 
servation means  economically,  socially,  and  politically. 

Another  very  important  relationship  of  personal  hygiene  is 
its  relationship  to  intellectual  efficiency.  The  uncorrected,  in- 
capacitating, remediable  physical  defects  of  school  children ; 
the  time  lost  through  absences  due  to  preventable  disease ;  the 
paralyses  and  other  organic  degenerations  following  the  pre- 
ventable diseases  and  leaving  chronic  incurable  conditions 
obstructive  of  further  mental  development  and  destructive  of 
that  already  attained  ;  the  disturbed  home  conditions  producing 
nervous  strain,  poverty,  undernourishment,  and  lowered  resist- 
ance, following  parental  disease  or  death  —  all  are  samples  of 
serious  avoidable  and  preventable  conditions  affecting  the  intel- 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  687 

lectual  activities  of  school  children.  If  the  personal  hygiene  of 
school  children  and  the  personal  hygiene  of  the  communities  in 
which  they  live  were  what  they  ideally  ought  to  be  and  what 
they  could  be,  these  destructive  conditions  could  not  exist. 

Furthermore,  the  aggressively  healthy  child  is  the  most 
efficient  child  academically  as  well  as  physically  considered. 
The  teacher  working  with  sound  healthy  minds  will  secure 
larger  educational  results  than  under  less  normal  conditions. 
This  fact  is  effectively  proved  by  the  experiences  of  our 
open-air  schools ;  the  introduction  of  school  lunches ;  the 
progress  of  pupils  who  have  been  relieved  of  incapacitating 
physical  defects ;  and  the  studies  of  men  who  have  compared 
schools  and  school  children  representing  various  types  of 
physiological  health. 

The  Scope  of  Personal  Hygiene.  —  In  its  narrower  sense, 
personal  hygiene  has  been  construed  as  including  only  those 
physiological  and  anatomical  and  very  intimate  personal 
relationships  and  habits  which  are  obviously  personal.  Such 
a  conception  would  bring  the  following  topics  under  the  head- 
ing of  "  Personal  Hygiene  "  :  Care  of  the  clothing,  skin,  scalp, 
nails,  eyes,  ears,  nose,  teeth,  mouth,  throat,  heart,  lungs, 
alimentary  canal,  genito-urinary  organs,  bones,  joints,  brain- 
and  nervous  system,  food,  water,  ventilation,  tea,  coffee, 
alcohol,  and  tobacco.  In  some  texts  "  first  aid  to  the  in- 
jured "  is  included. 

A  wider  construction  of  the  scope  of  personal  hygiene  in- 
cludes everything  that  bears  upon  the  health  of  the  human 
body.  Such  a  scope  would  include  the  various  subtopics 
connected  directly  and  indirectly  with  the  following  subjects : 
Bodily  nourishment,  including  food,  water,  and  air ;  the  ex- 
cretions ;  exercise ;  rest ;  the  influence  of  abnormal  con- 
ditions on  health  (e.g.  defective  vision,  bad  teeth,  adenoids, 
constipation)  ;  the  influence  of  certain  habits  on  health  (e.g. 
rapid  eating,  bad  habits  of  vision,  smoking,  drug  habits, 
sexual  habits,  etc.)  ;  the  causes  of  disease ;  the  carriers  of 


688  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

disease ;  our  defenses  against  disease ;  and  the  nature  of  our 
common  diseases. 

Personal  hygiene  considered  from  this  point  of  view  would 
be  rational  and  comprehensive.  Its  relationship  to  sex 
hygiene,  domestic  hygiene,  school  hygiene,  medical  inspec- 
tion, school  nursing,  community  hygiene,  industrial  hygiene, 
military,  naval,  and  national  hygiene  is  obvious.  These 
special  divisions  of  hygiene  are  important  because  they  repre- 
sent personal  hygiene  under  special  conditions.  The  hygiene 
of  all  society  and  of  all  the  enterprises  of  society  depends 
upon  the  hygiene  of  the  individual.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
individual  is  more  than  powerless  unless  society  as  a  whole 
stands  for  such  regulations  and  such  customs  as  will  make 
possible,  easy,  and  practical  the  application  of  the  laws  of 
health. 

TEACHING  OF  HYGIENE. —The  importance  of  the 
teaching  of  hygiene  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  Health 
represents  a  universal  human  interest.  Its  importance  can 
be  estimated  only  in  terms  of  human  value.  Efficiency,  to 
adopt  the  modern  slogan,  is  impossible  without  it.  Both 
directly  as  contributing  to  personal  well-being  and  indirectly 
as  contributing  to  the  welfare  of  others,  health  is  a  prime  con- 
dition of  human  happiness  and  even  of  morality.  Such 
truths,  which  are  so  commonplace  as  to  be  merely  platitudes, 
should  not  only  be  taught  to  the  young,  but  should  be  made 
vital  by  training.  Hence  the  aim  of  education  from  the  point 
of  view  of  hygiene  is  the  development  of  habits  of  healthful 
activity  both  physical  and  mental.  This  training  in  habits 
of  health  should  be  supplemented  by  suitable  instruction  at 
different  stages.  To  insure  such  training  and  such  instruc- 
tion, proper  training  and  an  adequate  course  in  hygiene  are 
imperative  in  the  preparation  of  all  teachers.  This  is  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  of  hygienists,  and  a  resolution  to  emphasize 
this  need  was  passed  by  the  Second  International  Congress 
of  School  Hygiene  at  London,  1907. 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  689 

Instruction  in  Hygiene  in  the  Schools.  —  The  extent  to 
which  instruction  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  hygiene 
has  been  introduced  into  the  schools  of  the  United  States  is 
indicated  by  the  recent  investigations  of  the  American  School 
Hygiene  Association.  Meylan  reported  on  116  colleges,  of 
which  75  per  cent  were  giving  instruction  in  hygiene.  Twenty- 
six  per  cent  of  the  colleges  reporting  on  the  details  of  their 
work  were  giving  instruction  hi  personal  hygiene  only ;  24 
per  cent  were  giving  instruction  in  general  hygiene ;  others 
reported  in  smaller  percentages  that  instruction  was  being 
given  in  emergencies,  community  hygiene,  industrial  hygiene, 
and  mental  hygiene.  Seventy-nine  per  cent  of  these  colleges 
reported  that  students  were  required  to  undergo  a  medical 
examination  before  taking  up  their  work.  Seventy-nine  per 
cent  reported  ^regular  sanitary  inspections  of  school  build- 
ings and  dormitories ;  77  per  cent  inspected  kitchens ;  83 
per  cent  inspected  the  water  supply  and  grounds.  Twenty 
per  cent  of  these  colleges  accepted  hygiene  as  a  credit  for 
admission. 

Gulick  reported  on  90  public  normal  schools  and  on  2392 
public  high  schools.  Seventy-four  per  cent  of  the  normal 
schools  and  16  per  cent  of  the  high  schools  were  giving  instruc- 
tion in  hygiene.  At  the  last  Congress  of  the  American 
Hygiene  Association,  Gulick  reported  on  758  cities  having 
graded  public  school  systems.  He  found  that  45  per  cent  of 
those  cities  "  have  regular  organized  systems  of  medical  in- 
spection in  their  schools  "  and  "  about  one  quarter  of  the 
cities  have  systems  under  the  Board  of  Health  "  and  three 
quarters  are  under  the  Board  of  Education.  "  Only  a  little 
more  than  one  half  of  them  undertake  physical  examinations." 
Seventy-six  of  those  cities  were  employing  school  nurses,  and 
forty-eight,  school  dentists.  Twenty-five  per  cent  of  those 
cities  were  using  individual  drinking  cups,  and  75  per  cent  had 
sanitary  drinking  fountains.  In  some  of  the  cities  both 
systems  were  in  use.  "  Over  one  half  of  these  schools  use 

2  Y 


690          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

moist  cloths  for  dusting ;  in  nearly  all  of  them  dust-absorbing 
compounds  are  used  in  sweeping ;  and  in  nearly  a  tenth  of 
them  the  schools  are  supplied  with  vacuum  cleaners."  Most 
of  these  cities  reported  that  their  schoolroom  floors  were 
washed  once  in  a  month  or  once  in  three  months,  "  although 
it  is  by  no  means  rare  to  find  cities  in  which  they  are  washed 
once  in  five  months  or  never  washed  at  all."  Adjustable 
desks  are  reported  in  about  one  half  of  the  cities  heard  from. 
"  Ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  cities  teach  their  children  the 
effects  of  alcohol  and  tobacco ;  61  per  cent  have  special 
courses  on  the  prevention  and  cure  of  tuberculosis,  and  48 
per  cent  give  lessons  in  first  aid."  It  is  very  evident  from 
these  reports  that  a  large  number  of  the  larger  cities  in  the 
United  States  have  made  provision  for  instruction  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  hygiene  and  have  organized  systems  of  medical  and 
hygienic  supervision  which  must  be  more  or  less  effective  in 
establishing  the  practice  of  hygiene. 

Scope  of  a  Course  in  Hygiene.  —  Authorities  differ  as  to 
the  proper  content  of  a  course  in  the  principles  of  hygiene. 
The  older  texts  combined  a  study  of  anatomy  and  physiology 
with  a  study  of  the  influences  that  act  injuriously  upon  the 
organs  and  therefore  upon  their  physiological  activities. 
Some  of  the  later  texts  minimize  the  amount  of  anatomy  and 
physiology  presented  and  emphasize  the  presentation  of  more 
purely  hygienic  material. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  essential  value  of  an  in- 
telligent knowledge  of  the  main  facts  of  human  anatomy  and 
physiology,  there  remain  obviously  very  strong  reasons  why 
an  intelligent  knowledge  of  hygiene  is  impossible  without 
an  equally  intelligent  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  physiology. 
The  teacher  must  be  well  informed  in  these  fundamentals, 
for  he  cannot  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  the  basis  of  his  subject. 
The  pupil  must  necessarily  be  content  to  take  many  things 
for  granted,  but  his  hygienic  education  will  be  more  valuable 
in  the  proportion  in  which  it  is  based  on  a  real  knowledge  of 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  691 

its  scientific  basis.  The  amount  of  time  necessary  to  give 
an  adequate  knowledge  of  physiology  and  anatomy  will  de- 
pend on  whether  or  not  physiology  is  taught  elsewhere  in 
the  curriculum  as  well  as  on  the  age  of  the  pupil  and  on  the 
phase  of  hygiene  under  consideration. 

There  are  different  points  of  view  also  concerning  the  con- 
tent of  elementary,  intermediate,  and  advanced  courses  in 
their  relation  to  each  other.  A  common  plan  is  to  consider 
the  same  subject  matter  year  after  year,  going  more  deeply 
into  the  details  each  time.  The  opposite  plan  is  to  take  up 
new  phases  of  hygiene  each  term,  utilizing  at  the  same  time 
the  facts  already  presented.  Another  variation  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  proper  content  of  a  course  in  hygiene  is  that 
which  includes  procedures  calculated  to  develop  the  practice 
of  hygiene.  Habit  is  most  important.  We  must  have  the 
knowledge,  but  the  knowledge  is  of  little  use  if  it  is  not  ap- 
plied in  the  daily  habits  of  the  individual.  The  procedures 
that  tend  to  develop  habits  of  hygiene  are  physical  exercise 
(games,  sports,  plays),  swimming,  bathing,  toothbrush  drills, 
hygienic  and  medical  inspection  with  the  correction  of  bad 
habits  of  hygiene,  and  of  remediable  incapacitating  physical 
defects,  routine  exclusions  for  contagious  cases  and  cases 
exposed  to  contagious  disease.  This  conception  combines 
instruction  in  the  principles  of  hygiene  with  instruction  in 
the  practices  of  hygiene.  It  unites  classroom  instruction 
with  the  applications  of  hygiene  in  the  various  departments 
and  divisions  of  the  school. 

It  is  most  desirable  from  the  standpoint  of  educational 
method  and  effective  results  to  combine  the  essentials  of 
related  anatomy  and  physiology  with  a  carefully  graded  se- 
quence of  hygienic  subjects ;  at  the  same  time  insisting  on 
the  practice  of  health  habits  and  procedures  from  those  of 
simple  cleanliness  and  exercise  up  to  those  of  individual  relief 
from  the  handicap  of  physical  defect  and  those  of  community 
protection  against  communicable  disease. 


692  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Methods  of  Instruction  in  Hygiene.  —  There  is  the  same 
necessity  for  sound  educational  methods  in  presenting  the 
subject  of  hygiene  to  school  children  or  college  students  as 
there  is  in  the  presentation  of  any  other  subject  taught  them. 
The  object  of  this  instruction  in  hygiene  is  the  establishment 
of  right  habits  of  living  based  upon  a  rational  knowledge  of 
the  reasons  why  those  habits  are  right.  The  subject  is  es- 
sentially scientific  in  its  foundations  and  logical  in  its  applica- 
tion. All  the  arguments  that  have  been  advanced  in  support 
of  better  educational  methods  of  teaching  scientific  subjects 
and  all  the  arguments  that  have  been  advanced  in  support  of 
educational  methods  that  will  best  develop  the  power  of 
reasoning  are  arguments  in  favor  of  the  employment  of  the 
best  educational  methods  in  the  teaching  of  hygiene.  The 
subjects  which  are  basal  to  hygiene,  such  as  physiology,  anat- 
omy, and  bacteriology,  should  be  taught  by  the  methods  that 
have  been  found  most  effective  for  those  subjects.  The  need 
for  dissections,  models,  illustrations,  diagrams,  charts,  speci- 
mens gross  and  histologic,  and  clay  molding  in  anatomy ;  of 
illustrations,  references,  laboratory  experiments,  and  so  on  in 
physiology;  of  cultures,  experiments,  and  specimens  in  bac- 
teriology is  as  urgent  when  these  subjects  are  a  portion  of  a 
course  in  hygiene  as  when  they  are  independent. 

The  Teaching  of  Hygiene  in  the  High  School.  —  The 
curricula  of  our  schools  are  already  overcrowded.  The  addi- 
tion of  hygiene  as  a  complete  subject  means  a  large  addi- 
tion. For  these  reasons  there  are  very  few  schools  in  which 
hygiene  is  presented  in  anything  like  its  complete  form.  The 
commonest  school  method  is  that  which  utilizes  a  selected 
textbook  from  which  the  pupils  prepare  their  recitations. 
Charts,  diagrams,  illustrations,  and  practical  questions  ac- 
company the  recitations.  Where  departments  of  biology 
exist,  or  where  physiology  or  bacteriology  is  taught,  these 
subjects  are  often  made  to  cover  hygiene  or  various  parts  of 
it.  Many  of  our  high  schools  and  colleges  are  placing  hygiene 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  693 

in  the  Department  of  Physical  Education,  where  it  has  a 
peculiar  appropriateness.  A  good  deal  of  hygiene  is  taught 
by  the  medical  inspectors  and  nurses  in  some  of  those  schools 
that  have  an  efficient  system  of  medical  inspection. 

There  should  be  careful  correlation  between  the  instruction 
in  the  principles  of  hygiene  on  the  one  hand  and  on  the  other 
hand  the  procedures  and  conditions  of  applied  hygiene  and 
sanitation  as  they  exist  in  the  school  system,  its  buildings, 
grounds,  and  material  equipment.  The  educational  influences 
from  these  various  sources  should  be  harmonious.  There  should 
be  no  inconsistencies  between  general  scientific  hygienic  prin- 
ciple and  local  hygienic  practice.  The  subject  matter  in  any 
given  course  in  hygiene  should  include  particularly  the  hygienic 
features  connected  with  the  health  problems  which  occur  in 
the  daily  lives  of  the  individuals  concerned.  Such  a  course 
would  logically  include  the  following  topics :  Food ;  its 
physiological  importance  and  requirements ;  its  source ;  its 
contaminations  ;  its  preparation  ;  its  ingestion  ;  the  influences 
of  emotional  states  on  its  digestion ;  its  assimilation  and  its 
excretion.  Water;  its  physiological  importance;  its  con- 
tamination. Air ;  its  physiological  importance ;  its  con- 
taminations ;  its  alterations  under  various  meteorological 
conditions  ;  ventilation.  The  excretions  ;  their  physiological 
significance ;  care  of  the  bowels ;  the  kidneys ;  the  skin ; 
the  lungs.  Physical  exercise ;  its  importance ;  its  necessity ; 
its  varieties  ;  its  abuse.  Rest ;  mental  and  physical  rest ;  rel- 
ative rest  and  recreation  ;  sleep.  The  influence  of  abnormal 
conditions  on  health  ;  e.g.  defective  vision  ;  obstructed  breath- 
ing ;  adenoids ;  tonsils ;  defective  and  unclean  teeth ;  dis- 
eased gums ;  sluggish  ulcers,  wounds,  and  old  areas  of  irrita- 
tion ;  exposures  to  heat,  to  cold,  to  moisture,  and  to  drafts ; 
fatigue.  The  effects  of  bad  habits  on  health  ;  e.g.  rapid  eat- 
ing;  mouth  breathing;  unwise  use  of  the  eyes;  sex  habits; 
the  abuse  of  tea,  coffee,  alcohol,  and  tobacco;  opium  and 
cocaine  habits.  The  causes  of  disease,  such  as  pathogenic 


694          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

bacteria  and  other  parasites.  The  carriers  of  disease,  such  as 
the  fly,  the  mosquito,  the  flea,  the  rat,  and  careless  human 
beings.  Our  defenses  against  disease,  such  as  fresh  air,  sun- 
shine, cleanliness,  and  good  health.  Special  hygiene,  such  as 
domestic  hygiene,  municipal  hygiene,  community  hygiene, 
industrial  hygiene,  school  hygiene,  "  sex  hygiene."  First 
aid  to  the  injured,  and  the  care  and  feeding  of  infants. 

Legal  Requirements.  —  In  most  city  school  systems  special 
emphasis  is  laid  on  the  unhygienic  influences  of  alcohol  and 
tobacco.  A  number  of  state  legislatures  have  enacted  laws 
requiring  such  instruction  in  the  schools  of  the  state.  The 
importance  of  this  instruction  is  great.  No  course  in  hygiene 
can  be  complete  without  including  a  discussion  of  alcohol  and 
tobacco.  There  is,  however,  a  question  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
specifying  through  state  law  that  these  subjects  be  included 
unless  the  law  is  made  to  cover  in  addition  other  equally  im- 
portant subjects  such  as  dental  hygiene,  the  hygiene  of  ali- 
mentation, pathogenic  bacteria,  the  fly  and  the  mosquito  as 
carriers  of  disease,  spitting,  and  so  on.  Emphasizing  the  im- 
portance of  instruction  concerning  the  unhygienic  effects  of 
alcohol  and  tobacco  through  legal  procedure  must  inevitably 
make  other  seriously  important  phases  of  hygiene  seem  to  be 
a  matter  of  secondary  consideration. 

SCHOOL  HYGIENE.  —  School  hygiene,  one  of  the  most 
important  departments  of  public  hygiene,  is  concerned  with 
the  conditions  of  health  in  the  schoolroom  and  the  sanitation 
of  the  school  surroundings.  During  the  last  fifty  years  the 
scientific  method  has  been  more  and  more  employed  in  this 
field,  and  a  solid  nucleus  of  scientific  fact  has  been  collected. 
A  rich  literature  has  been  contributed  in  the  form  of  articles, 
not  only  in  the  special  periodicals  devoted  to  the  subject,  in 
reports,  proceedings  of  societies,  and  the  like,  but  in  the  ar- 
chives of  hygiene,  of  medicine,  physics,  psychology,  anthro- 
pology, and  even  in  those  of  architecture  and  engineering  as 
well  as  in  the  educational  journals. 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  695 

School  hygiene  draws  its  facts  from  many  sources,  and 
naturally  it  overlaps  other  related  subjects,  such  as  general 
hygiene,  sanitary  engineering,  medicine,  child  hygiene,  etc. 
The  subject  naturally  divides  into  three  parts  —  the  construc- 
tion and  sanitation  of  the  schoolhouse,  the  hygiene  of  the 
school  child,  and  the  hygiene  of  instruction.  All  of  these  are, 
of  course,  ultimately  concerned  with  the  health  of  the  child, 
but  the  classification  is  a  convenient  one.  The  aim  of  all  of 
these  is  positive,  the  development  in  the  school  child  of  habits 
of  healthful  activity.  Especially  and  directly  is  this  true  of 
the  last  two  divisions  —  the  hygiene  of  the  school  child  and 
the  hygiene  of  instruction. 

Hygiene  of  the  School  Child.  —  Child  hygiene  in  an  impor- 
tant sense  is  a  special  subject  because  the  child's  body  differs 
from  that  of  the  adult.  The  hygiene  of  the  school  child  de- 
mands special  consideration  because  of  the  special  work  re- 
quired in  the  school.  It  is  based  upon  the  character  of  the 
child's  body  and  the  laws  of  growth,  and  it  seeks  to  determine 
the  needs  and  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  each  stage  of  develop- 
ment. Hence  among  the  important  contributions  to  school 
hygiene  in  the  last  twenty-five  years  have  been  many  scientific 
studies  of  growth  and  development,  of  the  diseases  and  ab- 
normalities of  school  children,  and  of  the  defects  of  the  various 
sense  organs.  Thus  the  relation  of  physical  development  to 
intelligence,  the  incidence  of  disease  by  years,  by  grades,  by 
seasons,  by  months  of  the  school  year,  the  relation  of  defects 
to  school  progress,  etc.  Methods  of  detecting  and  controlling 
contagious  diseases  have  been  investigated,  and  certain  im- 
portant correlations  have  already  been  established.  By  the 
introduction  of  health  inspection  into  the  public  schools  in 
recent  years  not  only  is  the  importance  of  school  hygiene  em- 
phasized, but  a  large  amount  of  valuable  material  for  the  study 
of  the  subject  is  being  collected.  The  school  should  be  made 
the  most  important  factor  in  public  hygiene ;  for  in  it  practi- 
cally all  the  children  are  collected,  and  conditions  can  be  con- 


696  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

trolled  in  the  interests  of  health.     The  prime  importance  of 
this  part  of  school  hygiene  for  the  teacher  is  obvious. 

Hygiene  of  Instruction.  —  While  this  department  of  school 
hygiene  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  Greeks  and  been 
treated  by  Comenius,  it  has  been  developed  only  in  recent 
years.  It  is  now  so  important,  however,  that  Burgestein  de- 
votes some  four  hundred  pages  to  it  in  the  second  edition  of 
his  handbook,  and  each  year  brings  important  new  contribu- 
tions. It  emphasizes  the  hygienic  importance  of  the  mental 
habits  formed  by  education  and  of  the  secondary  effects  of 
instruction,  and  it  studies  every  educational  principle  and 
method  and  the  matter  of  instruction  from  the  point  of  view 
of  hygiene.  Thus  each  subject  of  instruction  is  considered 
with  regard  to  the  effect  of  the  discipline  on  health. 

The  many  problems  concerned  with  the  period  of  study  - 
fatigue,  the  best  alternation  of  periods  of  work  and  rest,  the 
length  of  the  school  day,  one  session  or  two,  recesses,  pauses, 
etc.  —  have  all  been  made  the  subject  of  scientiiic  investiga- 
tion. The  importance  of  this  newer  field  of  school  hygiene 
is  seen  when  one  considers  the  fact  that  an  important  means 
of  curing  nervous  and  mental  disorder  is  reeducation,  the 
development  of  healthful  habits  of  mental  activity,  —  whole- 
some interests,  habits  of  attention,  self-control,  and  orderly 
association,  —  in  fact,  the  very  habits  that  are  essential  for 
hygienic  school  work.  And  when  one  further  reflects  that  the 
inmates  of  such  institutions  were  a  few  years  ago  pupils  in 
the  public  schools,  the  advantage  of  developing  such  habits 
as  prophylactic  against  nervous  and  mental  breakdown  is 
obvious.  More  and  more  scientific  investigation  and  obser- 
vation are  showing  the  hygienic  importance  of  such  mental 
training ;  and  the  hygiene  of  instruction  has  become  of  vital 
significance  to  the  teacher. 

The  Construction   and   Sanitation  of  the    Schoolhouse.  - 
First  of  all  the  sanitary  surroundings  of  the  schoolhouse  have 
been  made  the  subject  of   investigation.      The   schoolroom 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  697 

is  a  workshop.  The  conditions  must  be  made  hygienic  for 
the  work  to  be  done  in  it.  The  work  required  is  performed 
chiefly  by  the  brain,  by  the  eye  and  ear,  and  by  the  hand 
under  the  control  of  the  eye  and  the  brain.  Thus  the  condi- 
tions necessary  are  not  merely  the  avoidance  of  whatever 
would  be  injurious,  —  a  stagnant,  poisonous,  arid,  or  over- 
heated atmosphere,  too  intense  light,  glare  from  surrounding 
buildings,  noisy  occupations,  unsuitable  rooms,  etc. ;  but  in 
every  way  the  optimum  conditions  for  such  work  —  especially 
abundant  and  properly  regulated  light  and  an  ample  supply  of 
oxygen.  So  important  is  the  condition  last  mentioned  both 
for  the  health  of  the  pupils  and  for  the  work  to  be  done  that 
the  desirability  of  schools  out  of  doors,  or  in  conditions  ap- 
proximating those  out  of  doors,  is  now  being  emphasized. 
Since  in  most  parts  of  the  country,  however,  a  large  amount 
of  indoor  work  seems  necessary  on  account  of  inclement 
weather,  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  important  to  provide 
hygienic  conditions  in  the  schoolroom. 

Thus  this  department  of  school  hygiene  is  concerned  first 
of  all  with  the  optimum  conditions  for  a  workshop  where  the 
laborers  are  growing  children  and  the  labor  brain  work. 
Architectural  and  artistic  considerations  are  important,  but 
secondary.  First  of  all  must  be  considered  the  health  of  the 
workers.  For  example,  the  unit  in  a  schoolhouse  is  the  school- 
room, and  the  size  of  the  room  should  be  determined  by  con- 
sideration of  the  average  limits  of  normal  sight  and  hearing ; 
while  the  problem  of  construction  is  that  of  grouping  a  sufficient 
number  of  such  units  in  a  schoolhouse  in  a  convenient  way  to 
give  suitable  light,  air,  etc.  Many  scientific  studies  have  been 
made  of  the  best  forms  of  construction,  and  of  methods  of 
heating,  ventilation,  lighting,  etc. ;  and  from  these  and  the 
experience  in  building  millions  of  schoolhouses  certain  definite 
norms  for  construction  have  been  established.  If  we  could 
bring  together  into  one  schoolhouse  all  the  good  features  that 
are  actually  incorporated  in  various  schoolhouses  throughout 


698  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  country,  features  which  actual  experience  has  shown  to  be 
of  practical  utility,  we  should  have  a  model  schoolhouse. 
Most  schoolhouses,  however,  are  seriously  defective  in  cer- 
tain aspects,  and  some  apparently  ignore  modern  hygiene 
altogether. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  Early  Conceptions.  —  In  time 
past  and  in  our  own  time  physical  education  has  been  exalted, 
tolerated,  neglected,  or  denounced,  according  to  the  prevailing 
conceptions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  human  body  and  of  its 
relations  to  the  human  mind.  The  character  of  these  con- 
ceptions has  depended  chiefly  on  the  ideals  of  human  ex- 
cellence held  at  different  periods  in  the  history  of  education. 
Those  ideals  may  be  characterized  as  the  Greek  or  aesthetic, 
the  monkish  or  ascetic,  the  military  or  knightly,  and  the 
modern  or  scientific. 

The  Greek  ideal  recognized  the  unity  or  symmetry  of  body 
and  mind  as  expressed  by  Plato  in  the  Timceus.  "  Every- 
thing that  is  good  is  fair,  and  the  fair  is  not  without  measure. 
Now,  we  perceive  lesser  symmetries  and  comprehend  them, 
but  about  the  highest  and  greatest  we  have  no  understanding, 
for  there  is  no  symmetry  greater  than  that  of  the  soul  to  the 
body.  This,  however,  we  do  not  perceive,  nor  do  we  allow 
ourselves  to  reflect  that  when  a  weaker  or  lesser  frame  is  the 
vehicle  of  a  great  and  mighty  soul,  or  conversely,  when  a  little 
soul  is  incased  in  a  large  body,  then  the  whole  animal  is  not 
fair,  for  it  is  defective  in  the  most  important  of  all  symmetries  ; 
but  the  fair  mind  in  the  fair  body  will  be  the  fairest  and  loveli- 
est of  all  sights  to  him  who  has  the  seeing  eye."  Gymnastics 
were  accorded  a  large  and  important  place  in  the  educational 
program  of  Greek  youths.  The  teaching  of  gymnastics 
afforded  positions  of  honor  and  emolument  to  distinguished 
and  ambitious  men.  Bodily  training  furnished  themes  for 
poets,  philosophers,  and  historians ;  sculptors  and  painters 
sought  models  in  the  gymnasium,  and  Greek  physicians 
studied  and  adopted  exercises  and  procedures  originated  by 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  699 

teachers  and  gymnasts.  In  the  breadth  and  sanity  of  its 
aims,  the  completeness  of  its  development  as  a  national 
institution,  and  its  abiding  influence  upon  succeeding  genera- 
tions, Greek  physical  education  has  no  parallel. 

Modern  Views.  —  The  modern  or  scientific  ideal  of  physical 
education  owes  its  origin  to  the  belief  "  that  to  work  the  mind 
is  also  to  work  a  number  of  the  bodily  organs,  that  not  a  feeling 
can  arise,  not  a  thought  pass,  without  a  set  of  concurring  bodily 
processes."  The  sciences  of  biology,  physiology,  and  psychol- 
ogy have  furnished  a  basis  for  the  study  and  application  of  the 
laws  governing  the  growth,  development,  and  education  of 
the  body  and  mind.  Man's  knowledge  of  himself  has  been 
immensely  increased,  and  his  conception  of  nature  and  his 
place  in  nature  radically  changed.  One  of  the  most  promi- 
nent results  of  the  progress  made  in  these  sciences  is  a  deeper 
appreciation  of  the  vital  importance  of  motor  training  in 
education. 

The  modern  or  scientific  ideal  of  physical  education  recog- 
nizes two  chief  aims  :  (i)  health,  normal  growth,  and  develop- 
ment of  the  body  as  an  efficient  organism;  (2)  psycho-motor 
education,  with  emphasis  on  bodily  control  and  the  expression 
of  personality  or  character  of  the  individuals. 

These  ideals  are  based  on  the  sciences  of  biology,  physiology, 
psychology,  and  education,  but  physical  education  itself  has 
not  yet  attained  the  dignity  of  a  definite  science.  Since  the 
somewhat  crude  attempt  of  Ling  early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury to  devise  a  system  of  gymnastics  based  on  physiology  and 
coordinated  with  educational  procedure,  much  progress  has 
been  made  in  placing  physical  education  on  a  scientific  basis. 
During  the  period  of  evolution  from  crude  empiricism  to 
scientific  principles,  physical  education  has  passed  through 
many  phases. 

Three  distinct  systems  originated  in  Europe  and  developed 
simultaneously :  the  Swedish  system  of  educational,  military, 
and  medical  gymnastics  devised  by  Ling  and  his  followers ; 


yoo  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

the  German  system  of  gymnastics  developed  by  Guts  Muth, 
Jahn,  and  Spiess ;  and  the  British  scheme  of  athletics  and 
games  fostered  and  developed  in  the  universities  and  public 
schools.  The  Swedish  and  German  systems  had  for  their 
chief  aim  the  training  of  strong,  self-reliant,  and  patriotic 
citizens.  The  athletics  and  games  of  England  developed 
naturally  in  response  to  the  normal  play  instinct  of  English 
boys  and  young  men. 

These  well-defined  national  schemes  for  physical  education 
have  survived  to  the  present  day  and  spread  to  many  lands. 
The  Delsarte  system  of  exercises  was  devised  by  Francois 
Delsarte  in  Paris,  about  1840,  to  train  actors  in  dramatic 
expression.  The  Delsarte  plan  had  such  a  limited  scope 
that  it  could  not  gain  recognition  as  a  system  of  physical 
education. 

Forms  of  Exercise.  —  There  are  two  main  classes  of 
gymnastic  exercises :  first,  calisthenics,  which  includes  free 
movements  of  arms,  legs,  trunk,  etc.  and  exercises  with  dumb- 
bells, wands,  bar  bells,  Indian  clubs,  rings,  hoops,  balls,  etc. ; 
marching ;  and  dancing.  Second,  apparatus  gymnastics,  which 
includes  parallel  bars,  vaulting  and  horizontal  bars,  horse, 
buck,  vaulting  box,  stall  bars,  jump  stands,  ropes,  poles, 
ladders,  and  many  kinds  of  developing  appliances,  such  as 
chest  weights,  and  other  machines  built  on  the  principle  of 
weight  and  pulley  or  friction. 

Gymnastics  and  Athletics.  —  The  main  difference  between 
gymnastics  and  athletics  is  one  of  aim.  The  aim  of  gymnastics 
is  discipline  or  training  for  its  effect  upon  the  health,  normal 
development,  and  general  efficiency  of  the  individual.  The 
chief  aim  of  athletics  is  pleasurable  activity  for  the  sake  of 
recreation ;  in  the  athletic  games  of  boys  and  young  men  we 
see  the  highest  and  fullest  expression  of  the  play  instinct. 
While  the  characteristic  aims  of  gymnastics  and  athletics  are 
essentially  different,  some  of  the  most  important  results  of 
physical  training  are  secured  from  both  forms  of  activity.  This 


*.* 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  701 

is  true  especially  of  the  hygienic  effects  of  muscular  activity 
upon  the  circulation,  respiration,  digestion,  assimilation,  and 
excretion.  These  effects  vary  over  wide  limits  according  to  the 
kind  of  exercise  selected. 

Educative  Value.  —  In  considering  the  educative  value  of 
gymnastics  and  athletics  the  most  important  principle  is,  that 
neither  of  these  activities  can  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the 
other.  Each  contributes  some  essential  parts  of  a  complete 
physical  education.  Gymnastic  exercises  are  largely  subjec- 
tive in  character ;  they  serve  particularly  to  stimulate  normal 
physical  development  and  to  promote  good  carriage  and  easy 
coordination  in  motion  and  locomotion.  Every  gymnastic 
exercise  is  given  for  a  deiinite  purpose.  The  object  may  be 
to  secure  motor  coordination,  hygienic  benefit,  or  some  aes- 
thetic effect.  In  this  respect,  gymnastics  differs  radically  from 
athletic  exercises,  for  in  the  latter  the  primary  object  is 
always  to  produce  some  effect  outside  of  the  individual,  as 
hitting  a  ball,  throwing  an  object  as  far  as  possible,  or 
reaching  a  goal  before  an  opponent.  The  effect  of  such  ex- 
ercises upon  the  individual  is  always  incidental  and  second- 
ary. Another  advantage  of  gymnastics  is,  that  selection 
based  on  scientific  principles  of  anatomy,  physiology,  and 
mechanics  makes  it  possible  to  adapt  each  exercise  to  the 
particular  needs  of  the  individual,  with  a  view  to  producing  the 
effect  desired.  The  educative,  hygienic,  and  aesthetic  effects  of 
exercise  are  susceptible  of  definite  control  in  gymnastics,  but 
in  athletics  the  effects  produced  on  the  individual  are  indefinite 
and  accidental.  The  particular  effect  produced  by  gymnas- 
tics depends  partly  upon  the  movements  selected,  but  mostly 
upon  the  manner  of  their  execution.  The  best  hygienic  effects 
are  produced  by  adapting  the  movements  to  the  strength  of 
the  individual,  bringing  into  play  the  large  muscles  of  the 
trunk  and  thighs,  and  accompanying  the  exercise  with  music, 
which  adds  pleasure  to  the  work.  The  educative  effects  are 
best  secured  by  careful  selection  and  sequence  of  exercises 


SUM 


702  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

suited  to  the  state  of  psycho-motor  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  by  a  method  of  teaching  which  demands  accuracy, 
precision,  and  speed  in  execution.  The  aesthetic  effects  of 
form,  carriage,  and  grace  of  motion  and  locomotion  result  from 
gymnastic  dancing  and  other  exercises  of  the  same  type. 
The  recreative  value  of  gymnastics  depends  upon  the  ability 
of  the  teacher  to  make  the  work  interesting,  and  in  a  measure 
upon  the  attitude  of  the  student  toward  the  work. 

In  general,  the  relative  effects  secured  from  gymnastics  and 
athletics  are  as  follows  : 

GYMNASTICS 

Primary  Effects:  Secondary  Effects: 

Educative  Organic  (vigor) 

Hygienic  Recreative 

^Esthetic  Psycho-motor 

Moral 

ATHLETICS 

Primary  Effects:  Secondary  Effects: 

Organic  (vigor)  Educative 

Psycho-motor  Hygienic 

Recreative  ^Esthetic 

Moral 

It  is  very  evident  from  this  table  that  gymnastics  constitutes 
an  essential  part  of  a  rational  scheme  of  physical  education. 
The  results  obtained  from  gymnastic  training  vary  widely 
for  the  same  reasons  that  results  vary  in  all  branches  of  educa- 
tion. Poor  teaching  and  inadequate  facilities  always  produce 
unsatisfactory  results  in  gymnastics  as  in  any  other  subject- 
The  need  for  systematic  psycho-motor  training  and  vigorous 
muscular  activity  for  organic  development  tends  to  increase  as 
life  becomes  more  complex  and  specialized.  The  growing 
appreciation  of  the  physical  basis  of  human  efficiency  cannot 
fail  to  bring  about  increased  recognition  for  gymnastics  in  the 
school  curriculum,  more  competent  teachers,  and  increased 
material  equipment. 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  703 

In  Schools.  —  In  the  private  secondary  and  preparatory 
schools,  physical  education  is  organized  much  the  same  as  in 
the  colleges.  The  importance  of  motor  education,  health  su- 
pervision, and  moral  education  during  the  adolescent  period 
is  generally  recognized  by  educators  in  the  secondary  schools. 
All  the  large  schools  and  most  of  the  smaller  ones  have  well- 
organized  departments  of  physical  education  in  charge  of 
professionally  trained  directors.  The  first  attempt  to  include 
physical  education  in  the  program  of  the  public  schools  was 
during  the  decade  1860-1870,  when  the  calisthenics  advocated 
by  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  had  a  wave  of  popularity.  The  interest 
lasted  only  a  few  years,  and  physical  education  was  again 
neglected  until  the  decade  1880-1890,  when  a  number  of 
Western  cities  with  a  large  German  population  introduced 
light  gymnastics  of  the  German  type  in  the  public  schools. 
The  growth  of  cities,  industrial  development,  and  the  rapid 
expansion  during  this  period  were  factors  in  arousing  the  inter- 
est of  educators  and  the  public  to  the  importance  of  providing 
physical  training  for  the  children  in  the  schools.  The  city 
homes  could  not  furnish  the  necessary  environment  for  the 
normal  physical  development  and  motor  training  of  the 
growing  generation,  and  the  need  of  modifying  the  school 
curriculum  to  meet  the  new  conditions  was  recognized.  In 
1889  a  conference  in  the  interest  of  physical  education  took 
place  in  Boston.  The  conference  was  presided  over  by  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education  William  T.  Harris,  and 
addresses  were  made  by  prominent  educators,  physicians,  and 
specialists  in  physical  education.  The  purpose  of  the  confer- 
ence was  to  "  place  before  educators  different  systems  of 
gymnastics  and  to  secure  discussion  of  the  same,  with  a  view  to 
ascertaining  clearly  the  needs  of  schools,  and  determining  how 
they  may  best  be  met."  A  direct  result  of  the  Boston  confer- 
ence was  the  organization  of  a  department  of  hygiene  and 
physical  training  and  the  adoption  of  the  Swedish  system  of 
gymnastics  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston.  New  York  and 


704  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

many  other  cities  soon  followed,  with  the  result  that  by  1900 
nearly  all  the  cities  in  the  East,  Middle  West,  and  West  had 
some  form  of  physical  education  in  the  school  program.  The 
most  common  system  of  gymnastics  in  use  in  the  school  is  the 
Swedish,  or  some  modification  of  this  system.  A  few  large 
cities,  particularly  in  the  Middle  West  and  Southwest,  have 
adopted  the  German  system. 

Special  directors  and  teachers  are  employed  for  physical 
training  in  about  half  of  the  cities  where  this  subject  is  taught. 
The  most  common  form  of  organization  is  a  department  with 
a  director  of  physical  training  for  the  city,  special  teachers  in 
the  high  schools,  and  supervisors  in  the  elementary  schools, 
who  visit  each  class  once  or  twice  each  month  to  criticize  and 
help  the  grade  teacher.  The  athletic  activities  of  the  school- 
boys were  developed  by  the  boys  in  many  cities  without 
direction  or  supervision  from  the  school  authorities.  Since 
the  organization  of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  League  the 
school  authorities  in  many  cities  have  taken  control  of  this 
important  phase  of  physical  and  moral  education. 

Gymnastics  for  Girls.  —  In  all  schemes  of  education,  the 
tendency  has  been  to  provide  better  facilities  and  a  more 
extensive  curriculum  for  boys  than  for  girls.  This  has  been 
true  particularly  in  regard  to  physical  training.  In  Germany, 
England,  and  the  United  States  various  forms  of  physical 
training  were  provided  for  boys,  while  this  subject  was  entirely 
neglected  in  schools  for  girls.  Adolf  Spiess,  the  founder  of 
German  school  gymnastics,  was  the  first  to  advocate  gymnas- 
tic training  for  girls,  but  the  traditional  idea  that  womanly 
deportment  is  in  contradiction  to  exercise  has  hindered  the 
development  of  physical  training  for  girls.  Organic  vigor  and 
psycho-motor  development  are  as  essential  to  girls  as  to  boys. 
The  results  to  be  accomplished  are  the  same,  but  the  methods 
employed  must  vary  because  of  physiological  differences  in  the 
two  sexes. 

The  gymnastics  best    suited    to    girls  include  marching, 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  705 

calisthenics  without  hand  apparatus  and  with  wooden  dumb 
bells,  wands,  bar  bells,  Indian  clubs,  rings,  hoops,  etc. ;  simple 
exercises  in  vaulting  and  climbing  (omitting,  in  general,  all 
exercises  requiring  support  of  the  body  on  the  arms  for  more 
than  an  instant)  ;  easy  exercises  in  jumping ;  and  dancing. 
/Esthetic  and  folk  dancing  constitute  one  of  the  most  valuable 
forms  of  physical  training  for  girls  of  all  ages.  By  means  of 
judicious  selection  and  adaptation,  it  is  possible  to  secure 
from  dancing  most  of  the  essential  values  of  exercise,  such  as 
organic  vigor,  psycho-motor  training,  and  recreation.  Girls 
need  also  the  training  that  comes  from  participation  in  ath- 
letic sports  and  team  games.  The  qualities  of  courage,  self- 
reliance,  loyalty,  and  capacity  to  cooperate  with  others  and 
subordinate  personal  interests  to  the  interests  of  the  team,  which 
result  from  participation  in  team  games  and  sports,  are  as  de- 
sirable for  girls  as  for  boys.  This  training  is  especially  valuable 
to  counteract  the  tendency  of  some  girls  to  be  sensitive  and 
introspective  —  to  live  too  much  on  the  subjective  side  of  life. 
In  general,  girls  .under  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age  can  do 
all  except  the  very  strenuous  exercises  indulged  in  by  boys 
of  the  same  age.  With  the  onset  of  puberty,  considerable 
modification  of  the  forms  of  exercise  given  to  girls  is  made 
imperative  by  the  anatomical  and  physiological  changes  which 
occur  at  that  time.  The  most  important  modifications  nec- 
essary are  the  elimination  of  exercises  requiring  the  support 
of  the  whole  body  by  the  shoulder  girdle  for  more  than  an 
instant,  the  restriction  of  exercises  involving  jumping  to  those 
involving  very  little  jarring  of  the  body,  and  in  general  the 
elimination  of  violent  exercises.  The  introduction  of  competi- 
tive athletic  games  in  schools  and  colleges  for  girls  from  1890 
to  IQOO  was  accompanied  in  some  places  by  public  contests 
between  teams  representing  different  institutions.  This  fea- 
ture of  athletics  for  girls  has  been  abandoned  by  the  leading 
schools  and  colleges  because  it  was  found  to  be  detrimental 
to  the  best  interests  of  education. 

2Z 


706  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Should  personal  hygiene  be  taught  as  a  special  subject  or  in  con- 
nection with  the  work  in  physical  education  ? 

2.  What  are  the  general  educational  and  social  values  of  a  study  or 
training  in  personal  hygiene  ? 

3.  What  are  the  relations  between  moral  education  and  instruction 
in  personal  hygiene  ? 

4.  Should  instruction  in  sex  hygiene  be  made  a  part  of  instruction  in 
personal  hygiene  ?     If  so,  how  should  instruction  be  given  ? 

5.  In  any  given  school  system  in  which  you  have  had  experience, 
what  aspects  of  hygiene  are  taught  and  how  ? 

6.  What  should  be  the  scope  of  a  course  in  personal  hygiene  for  the 
high  school  ? 

7.  What  are  the  merits  and  demerits,   educational,   moral,   social, 
of  compulsory  teaching  of  the  effects  of  alcohol  and  tobacco  ? 

8.  To  what  extent  are  the  generally  accepted  principles  of  school 
hygiene  violated  in  your  school  ? 

9.  What   are   some   of   the  problems  of  school  hygiene  that  could 
properly  and  profitably  be  studied  by  the  high  school  pupil  ? 

10.  What  are  the  forms  of  instruction  in  physical  education  in  any 
given  school  ?     What  are  their  merits  and  how  could  they  be  improved  ? 

11.  To  what  extent  is  gymnasium  work  desirable  or  necessary? 

12.  What  modification  of  the  standard  forms  of  activities  in  physical 
education  are  desirable  for  high  school  girls  ? 


REFERENCES 

Personal  Hygiene 

BLAIKIE,  WM.     How  to  Get  Strong  and  How  to  Keep  So.     New  York,  1899. 

CLOUSTON,  T.  S.     Hygiene  of  Mind.     London,  1906. 

FOREL,  A.  H.  Hygiene  of  Nerves  and  Mind  in  Health  and  Disease. 
Authorized  translation  from  the  second  German  edition  by  H.  A. 
Aikins.  New  York,  1907. 

GALBRAITH,  A.  M.  Personal  Hygiene  and  Physical  Training  for  Women. 
Philadelphia,  1911. 

GREENE,  C.  A.     The  Art  of  Keeping  Well.     New  York,  1906. 

GULICK,  L.  H.     The  Efficient  Life.     New  York,  1907. 

HOUGH,  TIL,  and  SEDGWICK,  W.  T.  The  Human  Mechanism,  i/s  Physi- 
ology and  Hygiene  and  the  Sanitation  of  its  Surroundings.  Boston, 
1906. 


Hygiene  and  Physical  Education  707 

LE  BOSQUET,  M.     Personal  Hygiene.     Chicago,  1907. 

PYLK,  W.  L.     .-1  Manual  of  Personal  Hygiene.     Philadelphia,  1907. 

STOREY,  T.  A.  Individual  Instruction  in  Personal  Hygiene.  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Fifth  Congress  of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Association, 
February,  1911,  pp.  149-152. 

WOODHULL,  A.  A.     Personal  Hygiene.     New  York,  1906. 

School  Hygiene 

ABBOTT,  A.  C.  The  Hygiene  of  Transmissible  Diseases.  2d  ed.  Phila- 
delphia, 1901. 

BERGEY,  D.  H.     The  Principles  of  Hygiene.     Philadelphia,  1906. 

BLYTH,  A.  W.     Manual  of  Public  Health.     New  York,  1890. 

DRESSLAR,  F.  B.     School  Hygiene.     New  York,  1913. 

HARRINGTON,  C.  A.  .-1  Manual  of  Practical  Hygiene  for  Students, 
Physicians,  and  Medical  Officers.  New  York,  1901. 

MACFIE,  R.  C.     Air  and  Health.     London,  1909. 

NOTTER,  J.  L.,  and  FIRTH,  R.  H.  Theory  and  Practice  of  Hygiene. 
London,  1908. 

PARKES,  L.  C.,  and  KENWOOD,  H.  R.  Hygiene  and  Public  Health. 
Philadelphia,  1911. 

SEDGWICK,  W.  T.  The  Principles  of  Sanitary  Science  and  the  Public 
Health.  New  York,  1902. 

SALEEBY,  C.  W.  Health,  Strength,  and  Happiness;  a  Book  of  Practical 
Advice.  New  York,  1908. 

STEVENSON,  T.,  and  MURPHY,  S.  F.  A  Treatise  on  Hygiene  and  Public 
Health.  Philadelphia,  1892. 

WEYL,  T.  Handbuch  der  Hygiene.  Jena,  1893.  10  vols.  and  Supple- 
ment, 4  vols.,  1901-1904. 

Periodicals: 

Archiv  filr  Hygiene.  Herausgegeben  von  M.  Grubner.  Munich,  1896-. 
Journal  of  Hygiene.  G.  H.  F.  Nuttall,  editor.  Cambridge,  1901-1910. 
Journal  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association.  B.  R.  Rickards, 

editor.     Urbana,  111.,  1904-  . 
Journal    of   the    Royal    Sanitary    Institute.     Edward    Stanford,    editor. 

London,  1899-  . 

Teaching  of  Hygiene 

CABOT,  R.  C.  The  Problem  of  Teaching  Sex  Hygiene.  Proceedings  of 
the  American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  III. 

ELIOT,  C.  W.  School  Instruction  in  Sex  Hygiene.  Proceedings  of  the 
American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  III. 


708  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

GARTNER,  A.     Hygiene-unterricht  in  Schulen  und  Seminaren.     Schul- 
hygicnisches  Taschenbuch,  pp.  290-297.     Leipzig,  1907. 

GULICK,  L.  H.     Status  of  Physical  Education  in  Ninety  Public  Normal 
Schools  and  2392  Public  High  Schools  in  the  United  States.     Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  II. 
What  American  Cities  are  Doing  for  the  Health  of  School  Children. 
Proceedings  of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  III. 

HINES,  L.  N.     Some  Suggestions  for  a  Course  of  Study  in  Hygiene. 
Proceedings  of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  III. 

STOREY,  T.  A.     Individual  Instruction  in  Personal  Hygiene.     Proceed- 
ings of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Association,  Vol.  III. 

Gymnastics 

ALEXANDER,  A.    Healthful  Exercises  for  Girls.     London,  1887. 
BANCROFT,  JESSIE  H.    School  Gymnastics  with  Light  Apparatus.     Boston, 

1900. 

BETZ,  C.     The  Public  School  Gymnastic  Course.     Chicago,  1894. 
DUDLEY,   GERTRUDE,  and  KELLOR,  FRANCES.     Athletic  Games  in  the 

Education  of  Women.     New  York,  1909. 

MAUL.     TurnuntcrrichtinMadchcnschulcn.    Karlsruhe,  1893,  1895,  1897. 
NISSEN,    HARTVIG.     A.    B.    C.    of  Swedish    Educational    Gymnastics. 

Philadelphia,  1892. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
ATHLETICS 

EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  ATHLETICS.— The  educa- 
tional values  of  athletics  are  primarily  those  of  all  vigorous 
neuromuscular  exercise,  (i)  Exercise  secures  organic  develop- 
ment, i.e.  the  development  to  the  limit  of  inherited  possibilities, 
during  the  growth  of  the  individual  from  infancy  to  maturity, 
of  those  organs  and  functions  that  give  vitality,  vigor,  func- 
tional power  for  health.  (2)  Exercise  secures  psycho-motor 
development,  i.e.  the  development  of  that  control  of  the  mus- 
cular system  which  gives  skill,  body  resourcefulness,  and 
the  fundamental  basis  for  a  broad  "  manual,"  industrial,  and 
artistic  training.  (3)  Exercise  gives  the  opportunity  for  se- 
curing a  mental  and  moral  discipline  (a)  by  giving  a  drill  in 
vigorous  activities  which  require  alertness,  effort,  determina- 
tion ;  (&)  by  giving  self-knowledge  of  physical  powers  through 
comparison  with  others  ;  (c)  by  giving  standards  for  intelligent 
care  of  the  body,  especially  the  nervous  system,  to  secure  the 
greatest  physical  efficiency ;  (d)  by  giving  discipline  in  self- 
control ;  (c)  by  giving  concepts  of  "  team  work  "  or  coopera- 
tive self-subordination  and  social  experience  under  conditions 
that  identify  the  youth  with  the  social  interests  of  the  group 
demanding  cooperation. 

These  values  may  be  secured  with  different  emphasis  through 
industrial  labor,  gymnastics,  vigorous  play,  or  athletics.  The 
aim  in  'each  of  these  activities  is  different,  hence  the  bodily 
results  vary.  In  industrial  activities,  the  aim  is  industrial 
results ;  the  bodily  results  may  be  and  usually  are  very  un- 
balanced. In  gymnastics,  the  aim  is  physical  development 

709 


710  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

through  set,  formal  movements,  definitely  arranged  and  sus- 
ceptible of  predetermination  as  to  results.  In  athletics 
(though  they  may  also  be  taken  consciously  for  the  exercise), 
the  aim  is  the  contest,  and  the  movements  depend  upon  the 
exigencies  of  the  contest.  The  exercise  is  not  so  easily  prede- 
termined as  to  results.  This  gives  gymnastics  the  advantage 
in  the  precision  of  physical  results  that  may  be  secured.  In 
athletics  the  movements  are  more  specialized  and  less  easily 
controlled,  though  they  may  be  graded  loosely  to  fit  individual 
needs  and  tastes.  While  athletics,  generally  speaking,  secure 
all  results,  gymnastics  will  succeed  in  some  cases  where  ath- 
letics will  fail.  The  advantages  of  athletics  over  gymnastics 
arise  from  their  competitive  and  social  nature.  While  ath- 
letics may  be  used  as  gymnastics,  and  some  forms  of  gymnas- 
tics may  be  used  in  the  spirit  of  athletics,  and  each  made  to 
grade  one  into  the  other,  athletics  are  fundamentally  competi- 
tive and  social ;  gymnastics  are  so  only  by  consent.  Ath- 
letics, being  competitive  and  social,  rouse  a  broader  range  of 
social  impulses  and  emotions  than  gymnastics.  They  furnish 
possibilities  for  a  deeper  social  stimulus  and  training.  Gym- 
nastics gain  all  fundamental  results,  but  cannot  compare  with 
athletics  in  these  broader  disciplinary  values.  From  the  view- 
point of  general  education  and  a  broad  physical  education, 
athletics  must  be  considered  coordinate  with  gymnastics  in 
composing  the  technique  of  physical  education  for  youth. 
Athletics  probably  possess  the  larger  values,  but  no  broad 
rational  system  of  physical  education  can  be  based  on  either 
alone. 

Athletics,  being  contests  between  two  or  more  individuals, 
are  essentially  social,  and  require  organization  through  mutual 
agreement.  Several  possible  groupings  of  individuals  for 
contests  may  take  place  in  any  social  community,  (i)  Two 
or  more  individuals  or  groups  of  individuals  may  organize 
spontaneously,  day  by  day,  irrespective  of  social  affiliations, 
for  a  contest  or  a  period  of  play.  This  is  the  usual  method 


Athletics  711 

among  town  boys,  town  men,  schoolboys,  and  many  college 
men  untouched  by  an  athletic  association.  (2)  Permanent 
associations  may  be  organized  to  furnish  facilities  for  contests 
among  members,  as  is  usually  the  case  in  local  clubs  such  as 
tennis  and  golf  associations.  (3)  Institutional  groups  or  asso- 
ciations organized  for  other  functions  than  athletics  may  or- 
ganize for  the  development  of  facilities  and  the  promotion  of 
interest,  as  is  usually  the  case  in  schools  and  clubs.  (4)  Finally 
the  members  of  the  whole  complex  group,  the  institution,  town, 
city,  or  nation,  may  organize  under  the  name  of  the  group  for 
intergroup,  interinstitutional,  or  international  contests  with 
other  groups.  The  conditions  affecting  the  development  of  ath- 
letics in  these  various  groups  differ.  Many  of  the  tendencies 
to  evil  grow  with  progress  from  the  simpler  to  the  more  complex 
forms  of  organization.  Under  simple  conditions  the  manage- 
rial function  is  undifferentiated.  With  the  development  of 
athletics  in  formal  organization  the  managerial  function  arises 
as  a  distinct  special  force. 

Athletics,  like  all  games,  are  passed  on  by  tradition  —  by 
imitation  and  by  the  older  and  experienced  teaching  the  younger 
and  inexperienced.  As  athletics  progress  in  formal  organiza- 
tion, the  instructional  function  tends  to  be  differentiated  and 
specialized,  and  the  instructor  or  coach  develops,  with  special 
powers  for  good  or  evil. 

CREATIVE  FORCES  IN  ATHLETICS. —All  the  various 
forms  of  athletics  are  created  and  all  the  different  tendencies  in 
development  are  determined  by  two  different  classes  of  in- 
terests in  contests  common  to  all  men  :  the  participant's  or 
contestant's  impulses,  pleasures,  and  interests  in  the  activities 
and  result  of  the  contest,  and  the  spectator's  impulses,  pleas- 
ures, and  interests  in  the  contest  and  its  results  as  a  spectacle. 

The  Contestant's  Incentives.  —  The  contestant's  pleasures 
and  interests  develop  out  of  a  series  of  play  tendencies  which 
must  be  understood  to  understand  athletics.  At  the  founda- 
tion of  all  vigorous  muscular  play  there  is  a  pleasure  in  the 


712  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

mere  motor  discharge  exhibited  by  the  young  of  all  animals  — 
a  satisfaction  of  the  primitive  hunger  for  activity.  To  these 
fundamental  pleasures  there  are  added  a  long  series  of  pleas- 
urable emotional  states.  There  is  the  conflict  of  daring  and 
fear  in  feats,  the  pleasure  in  accomplishment  and  success,  the 
pleasure  and  pride  in  overcoming  difficulties  and  encountering 
risk  or  danger  with  all  its  emotional  tension,  the  exaltation  that 
comes  in  the  rebound  from  fear,  from  the  tension  of  expecta- 
tion, and  from  the  shock  of  surprise,  the  pleasure  of  enduring 
hardships  and  suppressing  pain,  the  pleasure  in  mastery  of  self, 
the  inspiration  of  being  a  cause,  and  all  the  emotional  content 
which  holds  attention  and  heightens  the  reality  of  life,  which 
is  opposed  to  ennui,  and  which  for  the  adolescent  is  a  neuro- 
logical necessity.  Then  there  are  the  impulses  which  influence 
the  form  of  play.  Through  all  childhood  there  is  intense 
pleasure  in  being  chased  and  chasing,  hiding,  being  sought  and 
seeking.  The  combative  social  and  egoistic  impulses,  appear- 
ing in  play  from  early  childhood,  become  especially  prominent 
with  adolescence.  Simple  running  for  its  own  sake  soon  loses 
its  charm  and  must  be  turned  into  a  contest,  thus  satisfying  the 
combative  impulse.  Rolling  about  on  the  floor  is  turned  into  a 
tussle.  The  egoistic  impulse  combines  with  the  combative  to 
give  keenness  to  do  something  as  well  as  or  better  than  some 
one  else.  This  tendency  becomes  peculiarly  strong  in  the 
adolescent  period,  the  athletic  age. 

The  social  impulses,  with  perhaps  some  sexual  elements,  add 
their  force.  A  desire  for  social  applause  and  approbation  leads 
often  to  self-exhibition  and  a  display  of  skill  or  courage. 
Especially  keen  is  the  pleasure  of  achievement  in  competition 
under  social  conditions,  perhaps  the  highest  stimulus  and 
satisfaction  in  youth  to  the  egoistic  impulses  and  emotions. 
Cravings  for  self-testings,  self-evaluation,  the  determination 
of  one's  social  status,  become  prominent.  Where  these  im- 
pulses come  in  contact  with  developed  or  traditional  play  ac- 
tivities, as  in  athletics,  there  arises  spontaneously  a  craving 


Athletics  713 

to  gain  one's  place  in  the  social  system,  to  become  a  member  of 
the  team,  to  represent  one's  fellows,  to  support  the  honor  of  the 
group,  and  to  win  the  satisfaction  and  applause  of  achievement, 
to  gain  honor.  Public  interest  intensifies  these  expressions. 
To  be  prominent  in  social  activities  is  one  of  the  most  stimulat- 
ing of  social  motives. 

Athletics  are  then  the  more  formal  contests  among  plays  and 
games,  limited  by  set  rules  and  arranged  by  social  usage  or 
agreement  to  give  the  largest  satisfaction  to  the  combative, 
egoistic,  and  social  impulses  and  emotions.  The  primary 
incentive  in  athletics  is  to  secure  these  pleasures.  Uninflu- 
enced from  without,  there  is  no  other  conscious  aim  than  these 
pleasures.  With  the  development  of  athletics  in  social  prom- 
inence, motives  become  more  and  more  social,  centering  in 
honor.  A  series  of  secondary  interests  and  motives  arise,  such 
as  a  desire  for  social  prominence,  leadership,  or  power.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  social  applause  and  the  desire  for  honor,  the 
primary  pleasures  in  the  contest  may  be  replaced  by  discomfort 
or  hardship,  or  even  pain,  yet  the  motive  sustains  the  effort. 
If  to  these  highly  developed  motives  the  desire  for  material 
gain  is  added,  the  aim  becomes  professional.  How  the  motives 
in  the  individual  shall  develop  is  determined  by  his  tempera- 
ment and  the  social  conditions  surrounding  him.  It  is  in  the 
soil  of  specialized  social  motives,  so  far  as  the  athlete  is  con- 
cerned, that  most  of  the  difficulties  in  athletics  develop. 

The  nature  of  the  incentives  that  create  play  and  athletics 
and  the  need  of  vigorous  neuromuscular  activities  during  the 
entire  period  of  growth  and  development  in. order  to  realize 
bodily  powers,  reveal  the  functions  and  meaning  of  athletics. 
Nature  made  the  play  impulse  the  guardian  of  physical  and 
mental  needs.  As  contests  appear  with,  and  are  especially f 
characteristic  of,  the  adolescent  period,  they  may  fairly  be 
considered  the  natural  vigorous  exercise  of  youth.  In  this 
sense  they  may  be  interpreted  as  nature's  means  of  physical 
education  during  the  adolescent  period.  The  primary  motives 


714  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

in  athletics  and  the  normal  results  are  purely  educational; 
the  youth's  aim  in  contests  is  pleasure  ;  nature's  aim  is  educa- 
tion. In  these  activities,  youth  has  inherent  rights,  and  so- 
ciety is  profoundly  affected  morally  and  socially  by  neglect 
or  protection  of  these  rights.  The  place  of  athletics  among  the 
social  customs  of  a  people  and  in  an  educational  system  must 
be  determined  theoretically  by  the  necessary  amount  of  daily 
vigorous  activity  required  during  the  successive  years  of  youth 
to  develop  complete  organic  power  and  fundamental  psycho- 
motor  skill,  by  the  relative  superiority  of  athletics  to  any 
other  vigorous  activity  for  moral  and  social  discipline,  and  by 
the  influence  of  these  activities  on  the  general  recreative  and 
social  customs  of  the  people. 

The  Spectator's  Incentives.  —  The  spectator's  interest  in 
athletics,  like  the  participant's,  arises  from  a  deep-seated  tend- 
ency in  human  nature.  It  is  closely  related  to  the  dramatic 
interest.  The  struggles  of  others  excite,  fascinate,  sway. 
Through  sympathy  the  spectator  enters  into  the  struggle. 
Especially  strong  is  the  excitement  in  lighting  contests.  Hu- 
man nature  loves  to  see  a  light.  The  extremes  of  emotion 
aroused  are  best  illustrated  by  the  world's  great  fighting  spec- 
tacles :  the  gladiatorial  contest,  the  chariot  race,  and  the  bull 
fight  of  earlier  times ;  the  horse  race,  the  prize  fight,  and  the 
professional  baseball  contest  of  modern  times.  The  less 
extreme  expressions  are  seen  in  the  support  of  traveling 
acrobats,  foot  racers,  and  games  not  intended  for  spectators. 
Out  of  this  primal  interest  in  a  struggle,  common  to  all  human 
beings,  evolves  the  spectator. 

The  nature  of  the  contest  that  will  satisfy  different  indi- 
viduals depends  on  character,  intelligence,  training,  culture,  and 
life  conditions.  On  one  side  there  are  those  who  are  satis- 
fied with  the  pleasures  of  a  skillful  contest  between  gentlemen, 
on  the  other  those  who  are  satisfied  only  with  a  fierce  personal, 
often  brutal,  combat  that  reveals  and  rouses  primitive  human 
passions.  Between  these  two  extremes  are  all  pleasure  seekers 


AtJilctics  715 

at  an  athletic  contest.  In  the  development  of  all  sports  these 
two  classes  are  ever  in  opposition.  The  desires  of  the  one, 
therefore  its  influence,  are  in  direct  opposition  to  the  other. 
Neither  can  be  satisfied  permanently  with  what  pleases  the 
other.  The  development  of  athletics  in  the  group  will  be 
according  to  which  element  dominates  in  the  creation  of  public 
sentiment.  In  proportion  as  the  extreme  spectacle-loving  ele- 
ment can  make  its  desires  felt,  will  the  anti-social  tendencies, 
revealed  in  the  destruction  of  many  sports  in  the  past,  reappear. 
The  human  tendencies  exhibited  in  the  more  or  less  extinct 
or  disgraced  contests  of  the  past  are  still  active,  and  reveal 
themselves  in  athletics  to-day  as  in  older  times. 

Many  characters  are  not  satisfied  with  the  emotions  con- 
nected with  the  spectacle  alone.  They  must  play  with  the 
emotions  of  chance  and  intensify  the  pleasures  in  the  spectacle 
by  a  wager  on  the  result,  hence  gambling  becomes  associated 
with  the  contest.  Furthermore,  many  live  over  an  emotional 
reverberation  of  the  contest  after  it  is  finished,  thus  developing 
athletic  gossip  and  the  sporting  sheet  in  newspapers,  which  in 
turn  arouses  the  same  tendencies  in  others. 

The  spectator  everywhere  tends  to  take  sides  and  become 
a  partisan.  With  the  development  of  athletics,  the  organiza- 
tion of  intergroup  contests,  and  the  selection  of  a  team  to 
represent  the  group,  partisan  athletics  arise ;  the  spectator 
becomes  an  institutional  partisan  and  takes  on  a  new  power 
for  influence.  Social  pride,  clannishness,  rivalry,  and  all  the 
emotions  exhibited  by  a  group  in  competition  with  another 
group,  surround  the  contest.  Group  becomes  arrayed  against 
group.  The  contest  tends  to  take  on  the  characteristics  of 
group  war.  Public  interest  becomes  partisan,  and  the  par- 
tisan aim  becomes  the  dominant  aim.  Interest  centers  in  the 
emotions  connected  with  the  chances  of  winning,  and  shifts 
to  an  emphasis  on  results.  Partisan  demonstrations  add 
to  the  spectacle,  which  attracts  an  ever-widening  circle  of 
spectators. 


716  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

The  influence  of  the  spectator  on  the  more  complex  develop- 
ment of  athletics  has  been  profound.  The  spectator's  pleasure 
in  the  skilled  exhibition  or  contest,  and  his  willingness  to 
pay  for  the  pleasure,  added  to  the  economic  needs  of  some 
skillful  performers,  have  created  the  professional  athlete  and 
professional  athletics.  The  professional  makes  a  business  of 
training  and  developing. personal  skill  to  supply  a  social  de- 
mand for  amusement.  His  activities  can  no  longer  be  classified 
as  play.  Again  the  spectator,  as  indicated  in  the  social  ele- 
ments of  the  contestant's  incentives,  supplies  the  more  stim- 
ulating applause,  approbation,  and  honors,  and,  as  his  in- 
terest centers  on  the  more  exciting  contests  and  the  most 
skilled  athletes,  he  tends  to  mold  the  athlete's  motives  and  the 
form  of  his  activities.  The  athlete's  motives  and  the  specta- 
tor's interests  tend  to  complement  each  other.  This  tendency 
is  particularly  conspicuous  in  intergroup  partisan  athletics. 
The  susceptibilities  of  different  individuals  to  the  influences 
of  the  spectator  vary  greatly,  but  the  combination  of  the 
specialized  social  motives  in  some  athletes  and  the  spectator's 
desires  tends  to  the  development  of  a  form  of  specialized,  highly 
skilled  athletics  primarily  for  the  amusement  of  the  spectator. 
The  athlete  requires  special  training,  thus  emphasizing  the 
coaching  function ;  the  spectator's  interests  require  manage- 
ment, thus  emphasizing  the  managerial  function.  Therefore 
the  influence  of  the  spectator,  while  a  stimulating,  though 
unessential  force  in  the  development  of  athletics,  tends  toward 
a  narrow,  highly  skilled  form  of  athletics  rather  than  toward  a 
widening  sway  of  the  athletic  interest  as  an  educational  force. 
Hence,  the  spectator  and  his  influence  are  the  most  serious 
problem  in  the  advancing  power  of  athletics. 

EVILS  OF  ATHLETICS.  —  A  number  of  evils  are  associ- 
ated with  athletic  activities,  but  a  distinction  should  be  made 
between  elemental  tendencies  to  evil  and  the  exaggerated  com- 
plications of  these  evils  through  specific  influences  in  the  de- 
velopment of  athletics. 


Athletics  717 

1.  There  is  the  tendency,  associated  with  all  vigorous  activ- 
ities, to  physical  injury.     This  tendency  is  increased  by  an 
individual's  competing  in  activities  for  which  he  is  unfitted, 
inadequately  trained,  or  improperly  equipped,  or  against  in- 
dividuals out  of  his  class,  or  while  fatigued,  etc.     The  tend- 
ency may  be  minimized  by  proper  inspection,  classification, 
and  training. 

2.  There  is  the  tendency,  associated  with  many  pleasurable 
activities,  to  over-indulgence  which  results  in  physical  harm 
and  a  dissipation  of  time.     This  is  chiefly  a  product  of  ill- 
advised  enthusiasm,  and  is  exaggerated  by  the  pressure  of 
partisan  rivalry.     It  is  eliminated  by  competent  supervision 
or  leadership. 

3.  There  is  the  tendency  to  specialization  which  may  result 
in   unbalanced    development    and    unfortunate   play   habits. 
It  is  exaggerated  artificially  by  the  pressure  of  partisan  rivalry 
in  intergroup  competition.     It  may  be  eliminated  by  com- 
petent supervision. 

4.  There  is  the  tendency,  common  to  all  social  competition, 
to  bad  manners,  to  irritability  in  defeat  and  gloating  in  victory, 
though  individuals  differ  greatly  in  these  tendencies.     The 
tendency  is  exaggerated  by  bad  play  traditions  in  the  group, 
by  bad  leadership,  by  disrespect  for  rivals,  by  bad  treatment 
on  the  part  of  rivals,  and  by  the  pressure  of  partisans.     It 
may  be  controlled  by  strong  leadership  in  building  wholesome 
play  standards,  and  by  good  management,  instruction,  and 
discipline. 

5.  There  is  a  tendency  to  evasions  of  the  rules  of  the  game. 
The  rules  are  articles  of  agreement  under  which  a  trial  of  skill 
is  to  be  made,  violations  of  which  are  dishonest.     The  limita- 
tions of  the  rules  offer  temptations  which  test  character  and 
training.     The  tendency  is  exaggerated  by  bad  play  traditions, 
by  vicious  instructions  from  coaches,  by  suspicion  of  rivals, 
by  partisan  pressure  to  win,  etc.     The  tendency  may  be  con- 
trolled by  strong  leadership  in  the  development  of  sentiment 


718  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

among  athletes  and  by  an  administration  that  counteracts  the 
influence  of  the  spectator. 

6.  There  is  a  tendency  to  violations  of  the  principles  of 
classification  in  any  group  which  under  the  law  of  participa- 
tion narrows  participation.     This  tendency  is  seen  under  sim- 
ple conditions  and  in  small  groups  where  the  older,  stronger, 
and  more  aggressive  eliminate  the  younger,  weaker,  or  timid 
from  certain  games.     It  is  seen  under  complex  conditions  in 
large  groups  where  there  is  a  temptation  to  neglect  players 
less  skilled  than  the  few  best  or  to  use  players  not  legitimately 
members  of  the  group.     The  tendency  to  violate  an  accepted 
classification  and   thus   to   gain   an   advantage  is   strikingly 
exaggerated   through   the   pressure   of  partisan   rivalry,   the 
interests  of  the  professional  coach,  and  suspicion  of  rivals 
in  intergroup  contests.     This  tendency  may  be  minimized 
by   educational    leadership    that   will    control    the  influence 
of  partisan  and  coach.     Public  opinion  may  here  be  very 
effective. 

7.  There  is  the  tendency  for  athletics  to  come  under  the 
control  of  the  spectator  and  develop  into  specialized  intergroup 
partisan   contests,   which   in   turn   tends   to   destroy  general 
participation  and  the  social  respect  for  athletics.     This  tend- 
ency is  especially  strong  in  the  later  years  of  youth.     With 
the  development  of  intergroup  contests,  the  desire  to  win  tends 
to  become  extreme.     Group  pride  is  involved,  and  success 
coveted  as  an  honor.     This  intensification  of  the  desire  to  win 
and  the  exaggeration  of  the  importance  of  winning  tend  to 
destroy  the  character  of  athletics  as  play.     Training  for  skill 
is  pushed  to  the  limit  of  youthful  endurance.     This,  though  the 
discipline  may  be  commended,  few  individuals  are  capable 
of  enduring.     Exceptional  individuals  must  carry  the  burden, 
so  there  is  selected  a  special  group  of  athletes  on  which  specta- 
tors, coaches,  and  managers  focus  their  attention,  leaving  the 
majority  of  the  group  forgotten  and  neglected.     Exceptional 
individuals  are  scarce,  hence  partisans  search  for  them,  and 


Athletics  719 

proselyting  or  recruiting  methods  develop,  which  promote 
violations  of  the  laws  of  classification.  Even  for  the  excep- 
tional athlete,  play  is  changed  into  work,  and  the  maximum 
energy  and  time  become  consumed.  As  a  natural  result  there 
arises  for  some  athletes  the  question :  What  is  there  in  it  ? 
This  the  partisan  tends  to  meet  by  extra  encouragements, 
inducements,  honors,  and  rewards,  and  petty  professional 
practices  develop  which  are  perpetuated  by  custom  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  partisans.  The  extreme  specialized  training 
aggravates  the  lesser  tendencies  to  evil,  to  counteract  which 
artificial  methods  are  adopted.  Trainers,  rubbers,  and  the 
training  table  are  employed  to  meet  the  physical  needs ; 
officials  are  multiplied  to  minimize  the  tendencies  to  unsocial 
acts  and  violations  of  the  rules  of  the  game ;  and  complex 
eligibility  codes  are  formulated  to  reduce  the  tendency  to  ig- 
nore the  laws  of  classification. 

Both  managerial  and  instructional  functions  tend  to  be- 
come totally  divorced  from  the  play  needs  of  the  masses  of 
youth  and  to  become  highly  specialized  agents  of  the  spectator. 
The  coach,  being  judged  by  the  results  of  contests,  concen- 
trates his  efforts  on  exceptional  athletes.  The  manager,  being 
dependent  on  the  spectator  for  finances,  tends  to  manage 
solely  in  the  interest  of  the  spectator.  This  management  and 
the  expenses  connected  with  the  equipment  of  teams,  cost  of 
games  and  trips,  officials,  training  tables,  coaches,  trainers, 
rubbers,  doctors'  bills,  medical  supplies,  honors,  rewards, 
privileges,  etc.,  tend  to  surround  athletics  with  a  strong  com- 
mercial atmosphere,  unwholesome  and  destructive  to  the  play 
spirit.  The  final  tendency  of  partisan  athletics  is  toward  a 
business,  involving  a  few  specialized  athletes  performing  for 
the  satisfaction  of  partisans,  which  is  essentially  professional  in 
methods  and  commercial  in  character.  Youth  tends  to  lose 
all  sense  of  athletics  as  a  natural,  valuable,  and  dignified  ac- 
tivity, and  public  opinion  tends  to  consider  athletics  merely  as 
a  spectacle.  How  far  this  evolution  will  proceed  in  the  organ- 


720  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ized  athletics  in  any  group  will  depend  upon  the  age  of  the 
contestants  and  the  elements  to  be  controlled. 

Several  factors  tend  to  exaggerate  the  specializing  influence 
of  the  spectator.  The  press  associates  partisan  contests  not 
with  educational  topics,  but  with  professional  baseball, 
prize  fighting,  and  horse-racing  gossip,  thus  misguiding  public 
opinion.  Educators,  concentrated  on  intellectual  education, 
tend  to  avoid  leadership  in  the  outdoor  life  of  youth.  They 
tend  to  leave  managers,  coaches,  and  players  without  super- 
vision, subject  to  the  domination  of  partisans,  and  free  to  use 
their  own  methods.  Winning  teams  have  been  associated  with 
the  advertising  movement,  especially  in  colleges,  and  this 
leads  educators  to  tolerate  unwholesome  practices.  The  same 
results  flow  from  suspicion  of  rivals. 

Of  these  several  tendencies  to  evil  in  athletics,  the  first  three, 
or  the  tendencies  to  physical  injury,  over-indulgence,  and 
specialization,  reduce  or  destroy  the  valuable  physical  results 
of  play ;  the  fourth  and  fifth,  or  the  tendencies  to  bad  manners 
and  violations  of  the  rules  of  the  game,  reduce  or  destroy  the 
valuable  moral  results ;  the  sixth  and  seventh,  or  the  tenden- 
cies to  violations  of  the  law  of  classification  and  to  control  by 
spectators,  reduces  or  destroys  the  educational  values  of  ath- 
letics for  the  many,  and  the  social  respect  for  athletics  among 
serious  people. 

It  is  clear  that  the  tendencies  to  evil  increase  in  seriousness 
as  youth  approaches  maturity,  as  the  intergroup  organization 
becomes  emphasized,  and  as  the  partisan  spirit  develops. 

CONTROL  OF  ATHLETICS.  —  The  importance  and  the 
values  of  athletics  in  the  life  of  youth,  the  factors  controlling 
participation,  and  the  tendencies  to  evil,  show  a  need  of  admin- 
istrative authority  with  larger  vision  and  broader  educational 
powers  than  are  possessed  by  youth.  Experience  has  shown  that 
the  play  life  of  both  children  and  youth  must  be  supervised,  if  the 
values  of  play  are  to  be  secured  and  the  evils  eliminated.  This 
control  becomes  increasingly  important  with  the  advancing 


Athletics  721 

years  of  youth  because  the  factors  tending  to  eliminate  from 
participation  and  the  tendencies  to  evil  become  more  influential. 
The  values  of  athletics  are  the  normal  product  of  the  athletic 
impulse ;  the  evils  are  the  product  of  the  ignorance  of  youth, 
social  influences  beyond  its  understanding,  and  the  neglect  of 
natural  leaders  or  teachers.  Youth  is  helpless  alone  to  under- 
stand or  control  the  factors  influencing  participation  or  the 
factors  causing  tendencies  to  evil.  Educators  or  social  workers 
start  a  reform  wave  when  they  realize  that  neglect  has  divorced 
athletic  influences  from  the  aims  of  education,  that  the  masses 
of  youth  have  lost  the  habit  of  and  respect  for  participation, 
and  that  public  opinion  through  lack  of  respect  is  unfavorable 
and  depressing  to  the  general  spirit  of  play  among  youth. 
Attempted  reform  often  precipitates  an  athletic  struggle 
between  the  reform  interests  and  the  interests  in  control  of 
the  athletics  to  be  reformed.  Potentially  or  actually  this 
struggle  exists  under  all  conditions  because  of  the  contrast  in 
tendencies  between  the  two  primary  interests  in  contests  and 
a  corresponding  contrast  in  public  opinion.  Between  the 
two  primary  interests  a  transitional  mixture  of  the  two  exists 
which  causes  most  of  the  struggle.  These  three  interests 
give  three  general  concepts  of  what  athletics  are  for  and  whom 
they  are  for,  to  which  all  current  opinions  and  attitudes  refer 
and  which  determine  all  policies  and  methods  in  the  administra- 
tion of  athletics.  These  concepts  may  be  formulated  as  fol- 
lows :  (i)  Athletics  are  solely  for  the  pleasure  of  the  specta- 
tor and  the  profit  of  the  athlete  who  furnishes  the  pleasure. 
(2)  Athletics  are  primarily  for  the  pleasure  of  the  spectator, 
especially  the  partisan  sympathizer,  and  secondarily  for  the 
pleasure  or  honor  of  the  athlete.  (3)  Athletics  are  primarily 
for  the  benefit  of  the  athlete  seeking  pleasure  and  achieving 
organic  and  social  power,  for  the  fellowship,  sympathy,  unity, 
and  loyalty  among  members  of  the  team  and  (where  inter- 
group  teams  exist)  among  the  members  of  the  social  group 
which  the  team  represents.  If  athletics  are  organized  and 

3A 


722  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

administered  on  the  first  of  these  concepts,  there  arise  pure 
professional  athletics,  or  athletics  for  the  spectator.  This 
concept  has  its  legitimate  place ;  to  it,  in  respectable  expres- 
sions, there  have  been  no  serious  objections  so  long  as  it  keeps 
its  place.  If  athletics  are  organized  and  administered  on  the 
third  of  these  concepts,  "  educational  athletics,"  as  defined 
above,  are  the  result.  If  athletics  are  organized  and  adminis- 
tered on  the  second  of  these  concepts,  there  develops  a  class 
of  athletics  somewhere  between  "  educational  athletics  " 
and  professional  athletics,  which  are  seldom  truly  educational, 
and  more  seldom  frankly  professional.  The  tendency  they 
take  depends  upon  the  class  of  characters  dominant  in  the 
control  of  their  organization  and  administration.  In  this 
concept  there  is  nothing  that  is  distinctly  independent  of  the 
other  two.  It  is  a  transitional  mixture  of  the  two  primary 
interests.  In  it  there  is  nothing  that  does  not  logically  belong 
to  the  first  or  the  third  concept.  It  is  based  on  misguided 
notions,  half-evolved  customs,  and  incomplete  logic. 

Again,  if  the  first  concept  is  accepted,  the  policies  will  center 
in  one  position  :  "  Get  the  best  talent  possible  "  and  satisfy 
the  spectators.  If  the  second  concept  is  accepted,  the  desires 
of  partisans  and  anxiety  concerning  questions  of  material  for 
winning  teams  will  be  paramount  in  the  development  of  ad- 
ministrative policies,  always  with  an  exaggeration  of  tenden- 
cies to  evil.  If  the  third  concept  is  accepted,  the  only  position 
that  can  be  taken  is  :  athletics  are  for  the  education  of  all 
youth,  irrespective  of  athletic  skill  or  ability  to  make  pleasure 
for  spectators,  bring  "  honor  "  to  a  group,  or  satisfy  the  pride 
of  partisans.  This  concept  and  its  interpretation  does  not 
necessarily  abolish  pleasure  for  the  spectator,  nor  the  possi- 
bilities of  his  education  as  a  spectator,  but  it  determines  ab- 
solutely the  primary  point  of  view  in  the  creation  of  adminis- 
trative policies  and  methods.  It  determines  the  relative 
amount  of  time  that  should  be  devoted  to  vigorous  muscular 
activities  as  compared  with  other  educational  activities,  the 


Athletics  723 

obligations  of  institutions  to  furnish  opportunities  for  par- 
ticipation by  all  and  instruction  for  all,  the  organization  of 
activities  to  meet  all  needs  and  capacities  and  to  conserve 
primarily  the  interests  of  the  many,  the  attitude  on  violations 
of  the  law  of  classification,  recruiting  and  uneducational 
methods  of  developing  teams,  the  supervision  of  the  conduct 
of  athletes  in  games,  in  training  quarters,  and  on  trips,  the 
character  and  number  of  games  played,  the  character  of  in- 
structors and  managers,  the  financial  methods,  the  kind  of 
training  methods,  such  as  training  tables,  trainers,  and  sup- 
plies, the  attitude  in  inter-institutional  relationships,  etc. 

An  effective  control  depends  on  public  opinion  and  expert 
educational  leadership.  Effective  leadership  will  be  ham- 
pered by  an  unintelligent,  careless,  or  vicious  public  opinion ; 
public  opinion,  even  educationally  the  best,  can  be  effective 
only  through  technical  leadership.  Educational  athletics 
for  all  can  be  fully  realized  only  when  the  public  sees  clearly 
the  distinction  between  athletics  as  an  educational  force  in 
the  life  of  youth  and  athletics  as  an  amusement  for  the  public, 
until  it  respects  athletics  as  an  essential  element  in  the  educa- 
tion of  youth,  fosters  a  spirit  of  competitive  play,  and  supports 
an  educational  administration.  Public  opinion  will  take  this 
position  only  when  educational  leaders  see  and  cultivate  this 
viewpoint.  Effective  leadership  requires  technical  skill, 
knowledge,  authority,  and  character  to  secure  the  participa- 
tion of  all  and  to  avoid  the  evil  tendencies. 

To  secure  effective  participation  an  educational  adminis- 
tration must  do  three  things:  (i)  It  must  supply  oppor- 
tunities in  the  form  of  equipment  and  activities  that  will  meet 
the  capacities,  needs,  and  tastes  of  all.  (2)  It  must  supply 
for  all  instructors  who  are  primarily  interested  in  the  education 
of  youth,  who  are  trained  to  recognize  individual  capacities, 
needs,  and  tastes,  and  who  will  give  sympathetic  leadership, 
encouragement,  and  stimulus,  especially  to  the  less  fortunate, 
in  the  development  of  effective  play  habits.  (3)  It  must 


724          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

supply  an  organization  that  is  primarily  concerned  in  con- 
serving the  educational  rights  of  youth  in  athletics,  that  will 
inspire  respect,  and  that  will  maintain  a  fair  classification  for 
competition. 

To-  avoid  the  evil  tendencies  an  educational  administration 
must  also  supply  three  additional  influences,  (i)  It  must 
supply  the  technical  knowledge  and  skill  to  give  physical  ex- 
aminations, supervise  the  amount  and  character  of  activities, 
and  care  for  minor  injuries,  thus  avoiding  the  tendencies  to  evils 
that  destroy  physical  results.  (2)  It  must  supply  a  moral 
leadership  with  knowledge  and  skill  and  character-power 
sufficient  to  control  bad  manners  and  tendencies  to  violations 
of  the  rules  of  the  games  and  all  tendencies  that  destroy  moral 
results.  (3)  It  must  supply  a  social  leadership  with  educa- 
tional ideals,  independent  character,  and  honesty  sufficient 
both  to  lead  the  earnest,  honest,  and  reasonable  spectators 
and  to  control  or  ignore  the  narrow  or  selfish  partisan  in  all 
tendencies  to  violations  of  the  law  of  classification,  the  edu- 
cational viewpoint,  and  the  social  status  of  athletics. 

All  these  requirements  in  an  efficient  educational  leadership 
demand  specialists  trained  as  educators  in  the  use  of  vigorous 
play  activities  as  educational  subject  matter. 

ATHLETICS  IN  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS.  Stages  of 
Development.  —  Athletics  for  high  school  boys  seem  to 
be  passing  through  three  distinct  stages  as  regards  the  atti- 
tude of  the  school  authorities :  first,  opposition ;  second,  tol- 
eration ;  third,  cooperation.  It  is  not  many  years  since 
school  authorities  looked  upon  athletics  as  a  positive  evil, 
and  not  only  refused  to  allow  the  schoolboys  to  take  part, 
as  representing  the  schools,  but  absolutely  opposed  such  ac- 
tivities. After  a  time  they  began  to  realize  that  boys  were 
sure  to  engage  in  athletics,  whether  the  school  authorities 
gave  their  permission  or  not,  and  a  period  of  toleration  fol- 
lowed. The  result  was  that  teams  competing  under  the 
school  name  frequently  brought  discredit  upon  the  school 


At klc  tics  725 

and  caused  principals  and  teachers  considerable  annoyance. 
The  difficulties  were  practically  solved  when  the  teachers 
took  hold  with  the  boys  and  helped  to  organize  the  sports 
and  to  provide  the  necessary  accommodations. 

Organized  Athletics.  —  The  problem  of  control  has  been 
made  difficult  through  neglect,  but  organized  athletics  in  the 
elementary  school  are  helping  to  improve  the  situation  by  de- 
veloping a  proper  spirit  among  the  boys  and  bringing  them 
to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  rules  of  eligibility  and  compe- 
tition. It  is  reasonable  to  hope  that  well-organized  athletics 
in  the  elementary  and  high  schools  of  the  country  will  help 
solve  the  problems  of  athletic  control  in  colleges  and  universi- 
ties. The  cooperation  of  other  athletic  associations,  as  the 
Amateur  Athletic  Union,  the  Military  Association,  etc.,  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  in  order  to  enable  the  school  authorities  to 
enforce  their  authority,  and  it  is  usually  given.  A  few  test 
cases  bringing  home  to  schoolboys  the  fact  that  they  can  have 
no  standing  in  other  clubs  or  associations  unless  they  pre- 
serve their  athletic  standing  in  their  school  are  sufficient  to  fix 
the  authority  of  school  officers. 

Rules  of  Eligibility.  —  The  following  rules  of  eligibility  are 
taken  from  the  handbook  of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic 
League  of  New  York  City. 

No  high  school  pupil  shall  represent  his  school  unless  he 
has  attended  a  school  for  twenty  school  weeks,  unless 

(a)  He   has   been  promoted   from   an   elementary   school, 
whereupon  he  shall  be  eligible  immediately ; 

(b]  He  has  been  admitted  from  a  school  outside  the  New 
York  public  schools,  whereupon  he  shall  be  eligible  after  an 
attendance  of  twenty  school  days. 

No  high  school  pupil  who  has  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one 
shall  be  eligible  to  represent  his  school  in  any  branch  of 
athletics. 

A  boy  shall  be  eligible  to  represent  his  school  in  athletics 
during  any  "marking"  interval  who  has  placed  14  hours 


726  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

(13  hours)  of  prepared  work  to  his  credit  at  the  last  rating  in 
the  office  records. 

In  those  high  schools  where  physical  training  is  not  con- 
ducted according  to  the  syllabus  13  hours,  instead  of  14,  shall 
be  considered  as  constituting  eligibility. 

Drawing  and  shopwork  in  manual  training  schools  shall 
count  one  hour  for  two. 

Any  extraordinary  case  shall  be  submitted  to  the  High 
Schools  Games  Committee. 

A  graduate  of  a  three  years'  course  in  the  high  schools  who 
returns  to  take  up  postgraduate  work  is  permitted  to  take 
part  in  athletics,  providing  he  is  eligible  according  to  the  rules 
of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  League. 

No  pupil  who  is  a  graduate  of  a  four-year  secondary  school 
course  shall  be  eligible  to  represent  any  school. 

Only  those  pupils  who  are  taking  full  work  in  a  regular  course 
shall  be  eligible  to  represent  the  school. 

No  pupil  shall  be  allowed  to  compete  in  the  mile  run  unless 
he  has  reached  the  age  of  sixteen  years  and  six  months.  No 
pupil  shall  be  allowed  to  compete  in  the  junior  events  if  he  is 
sixteen  years  old  or  older.  A  birth  certificate  shall  be  ac- 
cepted as  proof  of  a  high  school  junior's  age.  If  such  certifi- 
cate cannot  be  secured,  other  evidence  may  be  submitted  to 
the  High  Schools  Games  Committee. 

Any  boy  who  has  matriculated  in  any  college  or  who  has 
played  on  a  college  team  shall  not  be  eligible  to  represent  a 
high  school. 

No  entry  shall  be  accepted  unless  countersigned  by  the 
principal  or  the  school's  representative  on  the  High  Schools 
Games  Committee. 

Any  high  school  pupil  known  to  have  bet  or  acted  as  an 
agent  for  others  in  betting  on  athletic  contests  shall  be  de- 
barred from  competition  for  one  year. 

Safeguards.  —  In  the  secondary  schools  the  events  are 
graded  on  a  plan  similar  to  that  in  the  elementary  schools, 
and  a  limit  is  placed  upon  the  number  of  events  in  which  a  boy 
may  enter.  All  boys  taking  part  in  the  interschool  competi- 
tions are  required  to  present  a  certificate  signed  by  a  reliable 


Athletics  727 

physician  stating  that  they  arc  physically  able  to  participate. 
Effort  is  made  to  eliminate  from  the  list  of  events  those  that 
present  any  danger  of  serious  injury  to  the  participants.  As 
an  example  of  this,  football  under  college  rules  has  been  dis- 
couraged by  the  League.  In  New  York  City  soccer  football 
is  played  as  a  substitute.  The  game  of  soccer  is  free  from 
the  dangers  of  mass  plays  and  tackles,  and  offers  an  oppor- 
tunity for  all  boys  to  take  part.  The  small  boy  has  an  equal 
chance  with  the  larger  fellows.  In  fact,  he  is  frequently  able 
to  outplay  his  bulky  opponent. 

Events.  —  The  generally  accepted  events  for  secondary 
schoolboys  are :  loo-yard  dash,  22o-yard  run,  44o-yard  run, 
88o-yard  run,  i-mile  run,  loo-yard  hurdles,  i2O-yard  hurdles, 
22o-yard  hurdles,  half-mile  and  mile  relays,  running  broad 
jump,  running  high  jump,  pole  vaulting,  putting  1 2-pound 
shot,  discus  throw,  basketball,  baseball,  soccer  football,  cross- 
country running,  tennis,  swimming,  skating,  marksmanship. 

Summary  of  Values.  —  Among  the  objections  that  are 
raised  against  athletics  for  schoolboys  are  the  following : 
overstrain,  unfair  tactics,  too  much  publicity,  and  too  much 
time  and  attention.  On  the  other  side  there  are  positive 
advantages  of  well-organized  athletics,  such  as  the  develop- 
ment of  courage,  decision,  alertness,  tenacity,  resource, 
obedience,  restraint,  fairness,  cooperation,  self-sacrifice,  and 
generalship.  The  outlook  is  exceedingly  hopeful  because  the 
advantages  so  manifestly  outweigh  the  disadvantages,  and 
because  under  a  well-organized  system  the  evils  may  be 
practically  eliminated. 

Summary  of  Effects  upon  the  School.  —  The  leading  con- 
sideration in  athletics  for  school  children  must  always  lie  that 
of  the  effects  upon  the  school.  In  cities  where  this  work  has 
been  organized  and  given  a  fair  test,  school  authorities  are 
practically  unanimous  that :  (i)  Class  work  is  better.  (2)  The 
health  of  the  school  children  is  improved.  (3)  A  wholesome 
school  spirit  is  developed.  (4)  There  is  less  trouble  about 


728  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

discipline,  owing  to  the  closer  relation  and  better  understand- 
ing between  the  pupils  and  teachers.  A  district  superintendent 
in  the  New  York  City  schools  recently  declared  at  a  public 
meeting  that  organized  athletics  had  done  more  to  break  up 
truancy  in  his  district  than  any  other  thing  that  had  been 
tried.  The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  written  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  New  York  City  League  by  a  school  principal 
is  typical  of  the  attitude  of  teachers,  principals,  and  superin- 
tendents. "  Permit  me  to  add  a  word  of  commendation  to 
the  many  you  have  received,  for  the  excellent  work  your  as- 
sociation is  doing  toward  developing  a  love  in  our  public 
schoolboys  for  clean  athletics.  These  sports,  I  believe,  im- 
prove our  boys,  not  only  physically,  but  also  mentally  and 
morally.  This  conclusion  has  been  the  result  of  my  personal 
observations  extending  over  about  four  years.  I  have  known 
of  many  cases  where  boys  who  had  previously  been  quite 
neglectful  of  both  studies  and  conduct  in  their  classes,  showed 
marked  improvement  in  both  lines  after  entering  into  athletic 
contests.  I  have  yet  to  find  the  boy  who  has  done  poorer 
work  at  school  because  of  these  sports.  Many  times  the 
leaders  in  athletics  have  also  been  the  leaders  of  their  class 
in  their  studies." 

Athletic  Courtesy.  —  One  of  the  benefits  of  organized 
athletics  for  schoolboys  is  the  opportunity  that  is  afforded 
for  practicing  those  manly  virtues  that  mean  so  much  for  suc- 
cess in  after  life.  One  public  school  athletic  league  prints 
in  its  handbook  the  following  standards,  and  emphasizes 
them  to  the  boys  as  the  ideal  in  athletic  competitions  :  (i)  The 
rules  of  games  are  to  be  regarded  as  mutual  agreements,  the 
spirit  or  letter  of  which  one  should  no  sooner  try  to  evade  or 
break  than  one  would  any  other  agreement  between  gentle- 
men. The  stealing  of  advantage  in  sport  is  to  be  regarded 
in  the  same  way  as  stealing  of  any  other  kind.  (2)  Visiting 
teams  are  to  be  honored  guests  of  the  home  team,  and  all 
their  mutual  relationships  are  to  be  governed  by  the  spirit 


Athletics  729 

which  is  understood  to  guide  in  such  relationships.  (3)  No 
action  is  to  be  taken  nor  course  of  conduct  pursued  which 
would  seem  ungentlemanly  or  dishonorable  if  known  to  one's 
opponent  or  the  public.  (4)  No  advantages  are  to  be  sought 
over  others,  except  those  in  which  the  game  is  understood  to 
show  superiority.  (5)  Officers  and  opponents  are  to  be  re- 
garded and  treated  as  honest  in  intention.  When  opponents 
are  evidently  not  gentlemen,  and  officers  manifestly  dishonest 
or  incompetent,  future  relationships  with  them  may  be  avoided. 
(6)  Decisions  of  officials  are  to  be  abided  by,  even  when  they 
seem  unfair.  (7)  Ungentlemanly  or  unfair  means  are  not  to 
be  used,  even  when  they  are  used  by  opponents.  (8)  Good 
points  in  others  should  be  appreciated  and  suitable  recognition 
given. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  What  are  the  relative  merits  of  athletics  as  compared  with  gym- 
nastics  for  physical  education  ?     For   moral   education  ?      For   social 
education  ?     Which  contributes  most  to  the  school  ?     Study  these  in 
reference  to  particular  schools. 

2.  What  is  the  best  type  of  organization  of  athletics  in  schools  or  in 
a  given  school  ?     What  are  the  merits  and  demerits  of  such  plan  of  or- 
ganization, —  individual  groups,  permanent  associations,    institutional 
groups,  or  interscholastic  associations? 

3.  What  are  the  dangers  of  professional  athletics  in  our  high  schools  ? 
In  what  forms  does  professionalism  seek  to  come  in  ? 

\.   To  what  extent  should  athletics  for  spectators  be  allowed  to  in- 
fluence ? 

5.  What  are  the  forms  taken  by  this  demand  of  the  spectators  or  of  the 
public  ? 

6.  In  what  ways  is  the  influence  of  the  alumni  in  athletics  exerted 
in  a  given  school  ?     Which  of  these  influences  are  good  ?   Which  bad  ? 

7.  What  can  American  schools  learn  from  English  schools  in  the  matter 
of  athletics  ? 

8.  What  are  the  evils  of  athletics  as  seen  in  any  given  school?     The 
benefits  ? 

o.    Through  what   stages  of  development  have  athletics  passed  in 
any  given  school  ?     What  actual  growth  in  principle  is  observable  ? 


730  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

10.  To  what  extent  should  cooperation  with  other  athletic  organiza 
tions  be  permitted  or  encouraged  ? 

11.  How  can  school  athletics  be  used  to  promote  public  manners  as 
well  as  public  morals  ? 


REFERENCES 

General: 

JOHNSON,  GEORGE  E.  Education  by  Plays  and  Games,  with  Bibliog- 
raphy. Boston,  1907. 

LELAND,  ARTHUR,  and  LORNA,  H.  Playground  Technique  and  Playcraft, 
with  Bibliography.  Springfield,  1909. 

McCuRDY,  J.  H.  Bibliography  of  Physical  Training.  See  p.  9,  group 
013,  Philosophy  :  Relationships,  which  gives  the  best  references  up 
to  1905.  Springfield,  1905. 

MERO,  E.  B.     American  Playgrounds,  with  Bibliography.     Boston,  1908. 

Official  Handbook  of  the  Athletic  League  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  of  North  America.  American  Sports  Publishing  Co., 
New  York. 

Official  Handbook  of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  League,  published 
yearly  since  1904.  American  Sports  Publishing  Co.,  New  York. 

Official  Handbook  of  Sunday  School  Athletic  League  of  Brooklyn,  New 
York.  The  Walden  Press,  64  Fulton  Street,  New  York. 

Playground  Association  of  America.  Proceedings  of  Annual  Playground 
Congress,  1908,  1909.  New  York. 

Proceedings  of  the  Athletic  Research  Society.  American  Physical 
Education  Review,  Vol.  XV,  Nos.  3  and  4.  March  and  April,  1910. 

Proceedings  of  Intercollegiate  Athletic  Association  of  the  United  States. 
Published  yearly  since  1906.  (These  papers  are  the  best  on  college 
athletics,  and  all  are  published  in  the  American  Physical  Education 
Review.} 

Reports  and  Proceedings  of  Athletic  League  of  Baltimore,  1909. 

Report  of  Committee  on  An  Amateur  Law.  American  Physical  Edu- 
cation Review,  Vol.  XV,  No.  3.  March,  1910. 

Year  Book  of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  League  of  the  City  of  New 
York.  Published  since  1905. 

Public.  School  Athletics: 
BISHOP,  E.  C.     How  Should  the  Athletics  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  supplement 

that  of  the  Public  School.     Hygiene  and  Physical  Education,  Vol.  I, 

No.  10,  p.  880.     Springfield,  Mass. 
CLINE,    EARLE.     The   Advisability   of   Inter-High   School  Contests   in 


Athletics  731 

Athletics.    Physical  Education  Review,  Vol.  XV,  No.  i,  p.  22.  Spring- 
field, Mass. 
Handbooks  of  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  Leagues  of  Baltimore,  Md., 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Newark,  N.  J.,  New  Orleans,  La.,  New  York,  N.  Y., 

Seattle,  Wash.     (These  will  be  sent  free  on  application.) 
LARNED,  C.  W.     Athletics  from  Historical  and  Educational  Standpoint, 

Physical  Education  Review,  Vol.  XIV,  No.    i,  p.    i.     Springfield, 

Mass. 
MEANWELL,  W.  E.      The   Team    Game   Tournament.      Hygiene   and 

Physical  Education,  Vol.  I,  No.  9,  p.  896.     Springfield,  Mass. 
NICHOLS,   E.   H.     Competitive   Athletics.    Physical   Education   Review, 

Vol.  XIV,  No.  9,  p.  589.     Springfield,  Mass. 
Report  of  the  Committee  on  Athletics  for  Boys  and  Athletics  for  Girls 

of  the  Playground  Association  of  America,  i  Madison  Avenue,  New 

York  City.     (Sent  free  on  application.) 
Pamphlet  on  Public  Schools  Athletics.    Department  of  Child  Hygiene  of 

the  Russell   Sage   Foundation,  i  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City. 

(Sent  free  on  application.) 


CHAPTER  XX 
SOCIAL  ASPECTS   OF   HIGH   SCHOOL   EDUCATION 

THE  SOCIAL  VIEWPOINT.  —  In  the  light  of  present 
knowledge  it  is  evident  that  education,  even  in  its  most  naive 
form,  has  always  had  a  social  bearing.  The  earliest  groupings 
of  persons  for  the  sake  of  learning  were  in  themselves  social 
activities,  and  even  though  the  intellectual  or  other  gains  thus 
made  were  desired  entirely  for  individual  ends  they  neverthe- 
less had  consequences  for  society  as  a  whole.  But  previous  to 
the  nineteenth  century  :  the  value  of  education  other  than  that 
to  the  individual  had  little  place  in  human  thinking.  With 
the  perfection  of  the  processes  for  dispersing  knowledge,  how- 
ever, there  occurred  a  profound  deepening  of  social  self-con- 
sciousness. Society  began  to  understand  the  secrets  of  its 
own  development  and  to  manipulate  with  a  confidence  never 
before  possessed  the  various  forces  and  conditions  that  deter- 
mine social  progress.  One  of  the  most  important  manifesta- 
tions of  its  new  ability  took  the  form  of  self-government. 
Having  been  made  possible  by  the  spread  of  learning,  it  was 
inevitable  that  democracy  should  include  the  promotion  and 
administration  of  education  among  its  own  obligations,  to  be 
fulfilled  henceforth  as  a  rigorous  measure  of  self-preservation. 

The  perpetuation  of  popular  government  is,  however,  only 
one  phase  of  modern  educational  utility.  Society  looks  to  the 
school  for  richness  and  beauty  of  existence  as  well  as  for  safety. 
The  transference  of  accumulated  knowledge  to  rising  genera- 
tions ;  the  cultivation  of  sensibility  to,  and  proficiency  in, 
the  arts ;  preparation  for  economic  life ;  protection  against 

1  See  Paul  Monroe,  Influence  of  the  Growing  Perception  of  Human  Inter- 
relationship on  Kducation,  Proc.  Am.  Sofiolo'.'J-.'n!  Society,  Vol.  VII,  p.  47. 


Social  Aspects  of  High  School  Education     733 

disease  ;  and  the  physical  development  of  the  species,  —  these 
constitute  only  a  partial  list  of  the  services  now  being  exacted, 
but  they  well  illustrate  the  more  obvious  form  of  the  social 
viewpoint  —  the  school  as  an  instrumentality  of  society.  The 
changes,  tendencies,  antl  considerations  which  have  arisen  in 
public  education  in  response  to  the  demands  of  society  have 
been  called  its  external  social  aspects.1 

INTERNAL  VIEWPOINT.  —  Modern  developments  in  so- 
cial psychology,  anthropology,  and  the  social  sciences  in  gen- 
eral have  greatly  increased  our  knowledge  of  the  laws  governing 
the  educative  process.  Intellectual  growth,  it  has  been  dis- 
covered, is  largely  conditioned  by  the  contacts  of  the  individual 
with  other  individuals.  In  the  approbation  of  the  group  lies  a 
powerful  incentive  to  achievements  in  learning.  The  micro- 
cosmic  character  of  the  school  itself  gives  it  capacities  for  train- 
ing which,  if  properly  utilized,  yield  important  cultural  results. 
The  innate  tendencies  on  the  part  of  the  young  to  initiate 
social  organization  have  been  revealed  as  allies  ready  for  em- 
ployment in  the  exercises  preparatory  to  citizenship.  Many 
generalizations  of  equal  educational  import  have  been  formu- 
lated by  sociology  and  genetic  psychology  during  the  last  few 
decades.  The  modifications  and  problems  which  they  have 
occasioned  may  be  called  the  internal  social  aspects  of  educa- 
tion. 

Ever  since  the  school  became  an  agency  of  society  it  has 
changed  with  the  changes  in  the  objects  it  was  designed  to 
serve.  These  modifications  have  been  multiplied,  not  only 
by  the  urgency  of  successive  social  needs,  but  also  by  the  per- 
ception of  the  new  educational  ways  of  meeting  them  which 
have  been  revealed  by  social  psychology  and  its  allied  sciences. 
So  that  to-day  the  school  finds  itself  at  the  confluence  of  t\vo 
streams  of  influence  :  the  demand  of  an  extraordinarily  com- 
plex social  situation  and  the  suggestions  emanating  from  a 
rich  mass  of  scientific  data.  The  phases  of  education  they 
1  See  Irving  King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education. 


734  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

turn  into  view  are  vast  in  number,  but  for  purposes  of  discus- 
sion they  may  be  conveniently  grouped  under  the  following 
heads:  (i)  content  of  instruction,  (2)  methods,  (3)  organi- 
zation, and  (4)  supplementary,  or  extension,  activities. 

CONTENT  OF  INSTRUCTION.  —  The  social  demand  be- 
ing made  upon  the  secondary  curriculum,  in  obedience  to 
which  it  is  undergoing  rapid  modification,  is  that  it  shall  con- 
tain material  preparatory  for  all  —  not  as  in  the  past  for  a  few 
-  of  the  actual  relations  which  its  students  will  sustain  in  af- 
ter life.  Thus  to  the  traditional  groundwork  for  professional 
careers  are  added  the  fundamentals  of  many  other  callings. 
Indeed,  so  strong  has  the  demand  for  vocational  education 
been  that  special  schools  giving  a  technical  training  in  all  the 
leading  commercial  and  industrial  occupations,  including  agri- 
culture, are  now  to  be  found  in  the  secondary  field,  while  in 
the  general  high  school  it  is  seldom  that  the  academic  course 
is  not  accompanied  by  courses  in  bookkeeping,  stenography, 
manual  training,  and  the  domestic  arts. 

Besides  the  insistence  upon  a  vocational  preparation,  society 
is  calling  for  a  more  adequate  fitting  of  young  people  for  the 
obligations  of  citizenship.  Hence  economics,  civics,  and 
socialized  historical  courses  now  find  place  in  the  most' com- 
plete curricula.  The  importance  to  the  community  of  good 
health  has  added  emphasis  to  physiology  and  chemistry  and 
helped  to  bring  courses  in  physical  training  and  personal 
hygiene  into  the  body  of  secondary  instruction.  The  vice- 
preventing  and  character-forming  qualities  of  proper  recrea- 
tion have  made  athletics  a  matter  of  conscious  control  by 
faculty  and  students,  while  the  finer  potentialities  of  well- 
used  leisure  are  recognized  in  the  elaboration  of  the  fine  arts 
courses  and  the  requirement,  increasingly  made,  that  whatever 
is  cultural  in  the  curriculum  shall  be  actually  realizable  in  the 
student's  probable  future  environment. 

Finally,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in  Chapter  I,  society  is  now 
demanding  for  its  own  sake  that  secondary  education  be  so 


Social  Aspects  of  Jfigh  School  Education     735 

specialized  and  so  adapted  to  personal  variations  that  the 
particular  aptitudes  of  individuals,  whether  for  social  leader- 
ship, economic  production,  or  any  other  kind  of  human  activity, 
shall  through  it  reach  the  fullest  development  that  is  feasible 
within  the  limits  of  time  and  circumstance. 

SOCIALIZED  METHODS.  —  With  a  growing  emphasis 
upon  an  education  "  related  to  life  "it  is  natural  that  its  pro- 
cesses should  more  and  more  be  surrounded  with  the  same  con- 
ditions as  those  which  envelop  the  affairs  for  which  the  edu- 
cands  are  being  prepared.  Thus  in  the  industrial  courses  there 
is  a  tendency  to  have  the  pupils  make  products  having  a  com- 
mercial or  real  value  under  conditions  as  far  as  possible  like 
those  existing  in  the  manufacturing  world.  Repairs  are  made 
on  real  school  or  home  furniture.  Plans  are  drawn  for  build- 
ings which  are  actually  to  be  erected.  Periodicals  are  printed 
which  serve  as  bona  fide  mediums  of  intelligence ;  designs  are 
contrived  which  will  ornament  actual  pages,  book  covers,  or 
wall  papers.  Thus  in  all  vocational  courses  there  is  a  dispo- 
sition to  take  advantage  of  the  stimulus  which  comes  from  a 
genuine  need  felt  by  the  student  and  filled  by  the  products  of 
his  own  hands,  a  pedagogical  situation  that  is  much  more  ex- 
citing than  that  afforded  by  an  artificial  problem  and  an 
academic  solution. 

In  the  teaching  of  science  a  similar  relatedness  to  the 
students'  familiar  environment  is  obtained  by  basing  the 
laboratory  exercises  upon  analysis  of  everyday  foods,  the 
piping  of  city  water,  the  disposal  of  sewage,  or  the  home  appli- 
cations of  the  electric  current.  In  the  domestic  arts  the  pupils 
are  more  and  more  given  the  kind  of  equipment  they  will  use 
in  their  homes  and  allowed  to  learn  how  to  furnish  and  deco- 
rate a  real  suite  instead  of  being  drilled  in  formal  prescriptions 
about  a  hypothetical  one.  The  languages,  ancient  as  well  as 
modern,  are  early  made  the  means  of  classroom  communica- 
tion, and  the  niceties  of  the  mother  tongue  are  self-taught  by 
literary  societies,  and  newspaper  competitions.  The  rudiments 


736  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

of  finance  and  the  practice  of  thrift  are  naturally  inculcated  by 
student-managed  banks  having  connections  with  solid  outside 
institutions.  Historical  facts  are  dug  out  by  self-governing 
groups  using  early  documents,  evaluating  evidence,  and  re- 
incarnating the  past  situations  with  fresh  lineaments  drawn 
by  their  own  imaginations.  Civics,  politics,  social  ethics,  - 
these  also  are  self-developed  with  the  aid  of  newspaper  and 
magazine  accounts  of  current  happenings  in  the  students' 
own  ward,  municipality,  or  state,  while  practice  in  handling 
the  new  conclusions  and  applying  the  homemade  standards, 
as  well  as  a  familiarity  with  governmental  machinery,  are  ob- 
tained by  means  of  miniature  legislatures  or  congresses  sitting 
in  the  high  school  auditorium.  Reality  is  given  to  musical 
training  by  granting  credit  for  orchestral  work  or  membership 
in  the  student  band.  These  examples  do  not  by  any  means 
exhaust  the  social  aspects  of  modern  pedagogy,  but  they  illus- 
trate some  of  the  more  palpable  methods  of  utilizing  group 
stimuli  and  biological  grooves  in  secondary  educative  processes. 

SOCIAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORGANIZATION.  —  This  comes 
primarily  through  the  recognition  by  principal,  teachers,  and 
students  that  they  constitute  a  social  organization  and  that 
merely  through  membership  and  participation  in  its  activities 
pupils  derive  a  certain  kind  of  training  for  the  larger  outside 
social  relationships.  If  the  consciousness  of  these  social  aspects 
have  its  logical  effects,  it  will  perceptibly  modify  the  govern- 
ment of  the  school.  Without  surrendering  his  final  authority 
the  principal  will  give  both  the  staff  and  the  student  body  a 
share  in  the  management  of  affairs  and  thus  secure  full  loyalty 
and  at  the  same  time  impart  the  important  educational  effects 
of  self-government.  Common  expressions  of  this  principle 
are  observed  in  the  various  forms  of  student  government, 
student  management  of  athletics,  and  the  honor  system  at  the 
time  of  examinations. 

Another  phase  of  this  subject  is  disclosed  in  the  constructive 
attitude  now  appearing  in  high  school  administration  toward 


Social  Aspects  of  High  School  Education     737 

"  student  activities  "  and  student  organizations.  It  is  per- 
ceived that  through  these  spontaneous  groupings  pupils  may 
receive  a  preparation  for  after  life  of  a  kind  which  the  school 
has  not  in  the  past  given,  but  which  is  now  more  and  more 
expected  from  it.  A  social  training,  in  the  more  restricted 
sense,  is  a  factor  in  success ;  and  the  young  person  whose  home 
life  has  not  afforded  it  and  who  passes  through  the  secondary 
school  without  receiving  it,  is  seriously  handicapped  in  his 
future  endeavors.  To  meet  this  need  principals  and  teachers 
are  now  devising  methods  whereby  student  societies  may  be 
directed,  kept  in  their  proper  place,  and  all  their  legitimate 
usefulness  may  have  the  widest  enjoyment.  This  policy  goes  to 
the  extent  in  some  quarters  of  giving  credit  towards  gradua- 
tion requirements  for  exceptional  proficiency  in  social  leader- 
ship, student  journalism,  or  the  management  of  an  organization. 

Concern  for  the  pupil's  future  economic  relationship  has  led 
to  increasing  attention  to  the  subject  of  employment  and  vo- 
cational guidance.  While  the  methods  for  performing  the 
latter  function  have  not  been  successfully  formulated  as  yet, 
the  school  is  feeling  such  a  responsibility  in  the  matter  that  it 
is  now  recognized  as  a  genuine  administrative  problem.  Em- 
ployment bureaus  are  found  in  many  high  schools. 

The  new  viewpoint  in  instruction  has  occasioned  organization 
changes  of  a  novel  character.  These  are  the  connections  exist- 
ing between  certain  schools  and  local  industries,  commercial 
societies,  or  municipal  departments.  Whether  the  activity  is 
that  of  making  products  of  market  value,  taking  an  industrial 
census,  or  protecting  the  city  water  supply,  the  object  is  the 
same,  to  subject  the  student  to  the  powerful  stimuli  of  the 
natural  social  environment.  How  far  this  tendency  will  go 
no  one  can  prophesy,  but  that  it  is  just  now  a  very  real  one  is 
indisputable.  It  has  also  the  reenforcement  of  the  vitalizing 
effect  which  is  wrought  upon  the  teacher's  influence  through 
his  participation  in  the  concrete  activities  of  the  outside 
world. 

3B 


738  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Another  organic  change  is  that  which  inevitably  follows  the 
principal's  perception  of  his  school  as  a  social  undertaking 
that  is  amenable  to  the  dictates  of  public  opinion.  When  he 
realizes  that  the  financial  support  of  his  institution  depends 
upon  the  taxpayer's  approval,  he  begins  to  seek  some  certain 
means  of  retaining  popular  approbation.  When  he  appre- 
ciates how  easily  the  results  of  his  efforts  to  mold  the  habits 
of  his  pupils  can  be  offset  by  the  hostile  conditions  outside  of 
the  school,  he  begins  to  plan  for  sympathetic  cooperation 
between  his  institution  and  the  home  and  the  other  construc- 
tive forces  of  the  community.  As  a  result  more  direct  connec- 
tions are  established  between  the  high  school  and  the  adult 
members  of  its  constituency.  These  frequently  take  the  form 
of  parent-teacher,  fathers',  or  improvement  associations.  By 
means  of  them  the  school  staff  and  the  citizens  are  brought  into 
immediate  contact,  and  the  interchange  of  ideas,  sentiments, 
wishes,  and  plans  between  them  is  greatly  facilitated. 

HIGH  SCHOOL  EXTENSION.  —  The  activities  under  this 
head  find  their  raison  d'etre  in  two  main  sets  of  conditions : 
(a)  the  school's  need,  for  the  sake  of  the  completest  discharge  of 
its  primary  function,  of  more  direct  connections  with  society, 
and  (b)  society's  need  of  new  and  larger  services  from  the  school. 
The  first  of  these  has  already  been  broached  in  the  preceding 
section,  and  regarding  it  there  remains  to  point  out  only  the 
consideration  that  the  opportunity  for  its  full  satisfaction  is 
afforded  in  the  discharge  of  the  new  responsibilities  being  laid 
upon  the  school  by  society.  Thus  the  most  effective  way  of 
justifying  the  huge  expenditures  of  public  funds  now  being 
made  upon  high  school  plants  is  to  utilize  them  to  their  fullest 
possible  capacity.  To  do  that  requires  the  bringing  in  of  addi- 
tional groups  of  people  to  be  benefited  in  some  way  by  the 
school  facilities.  Keeping  the  school  policy  in  harmony  with 
public  sentiment  can  best  be  accomplished  by  allowing  and 
stimulating  popular  utterances  within  school  halls.  The 
public  can  best  be  informed  about  school  conditions  by  being 


Social  Aspects  of  High  School  Education     739 

brought  into  the  building  where  they  can  be  seen.  The 
school  staff  can  be  kept  in  vitalizing  contact  with  social  prob- 
lems by  engaging  directly  in  the  enterprises  that  are  set  in 
motion  to  solve  social  difficulties;  and,  finally,  the  school  will 
experience  less  trouble  in  securing  the  cooperation  of  patrons 
in  the  carrying  of  school  ideals,  practices,  and  regulations  into 
the  pupils'  homes  if,  in  return,  the  school  will  facilitate  through 
the  loan  of  its  assembly  rooms  and  other  resources  the  attain- 
ment of  patrons'  ends  in  the  other  phases  of  the  community 
life. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  ACTIVITIES  DEMANDED  BY  SO- 
CIETY. —  At  the  outset  it  may  be  said  that  in  putting  forth 
the  following  demands  society's  attitude  is  strongly  reenforced 
by  the  consciousness  of  the  vast  investment  represented  by 
secondary  school  property  and  of  its  incomplete  utilization 
when  devoted  solely  to  its  primary  function.  In  keeping  with 
the  prevalent  inclination  towards  the  conservation  and  eco- 
nomical exploitation  of  all  its  resources,  society  makes  its 
growing  demands  with  confidence,  and  the  trend  of  present 
developments  in  the  wider  use  of  the  high  school  buildings 
shows  that  it  is  not  a  mistaken  feeling.  These  demands 
when  classified  upon  the  basis  of  their  dominant  effect  fall  into 
three  classes :  (i)  moral,  (2)  cultural,  and  (3)  civic. 

i.  The  comparatively  recent  discovery  of  the  significance 
of  leisure-time  activities  in  the  determination  of  character 
has  been  followed  by  a  public  movement  to  safeguard  youth 
through  a  constructive  surveillance  over  the  periods  of  play 
and  recreation.  Translated  into  specific  high  school  measures 
this  means  the  appropriation  by  young  people  in  general  of 
the  gymnasium  for  basket  ball,  folk  and  social  dancing,  calis- 
thenics, and  other  physical  activities  during  the  marginal 
periods  of  day  and  evening.  In  the  same  way  the  auditorium, 
with  its  stage,  organ,  curtain,  and  other  appurtenances,  is 
requisitioned  for  motion  pictures,  amateur  theatricals,  concerts, 
debates,  and  popular  entertainments  of  all  kinds.  In  this 


740          Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

room,  as  well  as  other  suitable  quarters,  choral  societies, 
amateur  orchestras  and  bands,  social,  literary,  and  debating 
societies,  and  social  clubs  of  all  sorts  carry  on  their  respective 
activities,  while  in  the  laboratories  and  other  workshops  those 
who  find  recreation  through  hobbies  find  means  and  oppor- 
tunities which  are  not  available  elsewhere. 

The  inevitable  result  of  any  prolonged  and  systematic  at- 
tempt to  enrich  people's  recreations  is  a  marked  and  wide 
stimulation  of  individual  talent.  Entertainments  demand  en- 
tertainers. Performances  require  performers.  The  keenest  en- 
joyments known  to  human  beings  are  always  related  to  the 
activities  of  other  human  beings.  Where  the  enchainment  of 
the  attention  is  desired,  somebody's  special  abilities  are  always 
called  into  play.  Accordingly  it  is  quite  understandable 
why  dramatic,  orchestral,  and  wind  instrument  performances 
find  so  large  a  place  in  recreational  programs,  why  out  of  play- 
grounds and  social  centers  play  festivals  and  pageants  are  now 
proceeding,  and  why  finally  this  aspect  of  the  subject  makes 
such  a  natural  transition  to  the  next  topic,  the  cultural  effects. 

2.  The  constant  craving  for  knowledge  of  the  best  things 
which  have  been  written,  composed,  or  depicted,  that  is  found 
in  every  community  may  be  fed  by  the  high  school  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  The  most  common  is  that  of  arranging  popular 
lectures,  readings,  and  concerts  and  by  the  provision  of  even- 
ing courses  in  literature,  the  foreign  languages,  and  art  appre- 
ciation. Some  schools  offer  also  the  privileges  of  a  public 
circulating  library,  but  the  most  striking  example  of  this  kind 
of  service  is  to  be  found  in  devotion  of  the  lobby,  corridors,  or 
some  specially  designed  space  to  the  uses  of  an  art  gallery. 
In  the  instances  already  existing,  loan  collections,  artists'  ex- 
hibitions, the  stored-away  surplus  of  the  local  museum,  and  the 
treasures  assembled  by  art  societies  have  formed  the  material 
for  undertakings  which  are  as  stimulative  to  the  students  as 
they  are  productive  of  enjoyment  and  cultivation  for  the 
community.  Esthetic  resources  are  also  increased  through 


Social  Aspects  of  High  ScJwol  Education     741 

the  encouragement  involved  in  the  letting  of  rooms  for  meet- 
ings or  rehearsals  to  musical,  literary,  or  art  societies  and  or- 
ganizations. Not  only  the  amateurs,  but  the  professional 
performers  and  teachers,  are  benefited  by  every  increase  in 
the  opportunities  and  occasions  for  attention  to  the  things 
that  delight  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  spirit. 

3.  The  opportunities  for  aiding  the  civic  life  of  a  community 
that  are  open  to  the  high  school  arise  (a]  partly  from  the 
manner  in  which  our  institutions  are  being  modified,  and 
(b)  partly  from  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  needs  of  a  people 
not  all  equally  qualified  for  bearing  the  responsibilities  of  a 
democracy. 

(a)  The  alterations,  improvements,  recastings  of  municipal, 
state,  and  national  machinery  are  usually  made,  in  the  first 
instance,  by  groups  of  specially  interested  individuals  generi- 
cally  called  voluntary  organizations.  Bodies  of  this  type  not 
only  devise  the  new  perfections  but  also  undertake  to  bring 
about  their  adoption,  and  oftentimes  maintain  the  new  ac- 
tivity, for  demonstrative  purposes,  until  society  is  ready  to 
incorporate  it  in  the  regular  governmental  routine.  The  ex- 
istence, efforts,  and  efficiency  of  such  organizations  can  usually 
be  greatly  furthered  by  the  provision  of  quarters  for  meeting 
and  working.  This  service  high  schools  are  increasingly  per- 
forming for  all  sorts  of  welfare  and  improvement  associations 
and  institutions. 

(7>)  Ignorance  of  local  civic  affairs  may  be  due  to  foreign 
birth  or  parentage.  This  defect  high  schools  can  aid  in  remedy- 
ing by  offering  courses  in  English,  and  by  giving  to  foreigners 
in  other  ways  knowledge  of  our  customs,  history,  and  insti- 
tutions. The  dignity  of  American  citizenship  is  being  im- 
pressed upon  newly  naturalized  immigrants  in  some  schools 
by  special  occasions  presided  over  by  leading  citizens  and 
surrounded  with  suitable  ceremonies.  The  familiarity  with 
civic  affairs  which  is  usually  so  inadequate  among  the  general- 
ity of  people  can  be  improved  through  the  institution  of  ad- 


742  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

dresses  and  discussions  by  persons  of  prominence  and  authority 
upon  topics  of  governmental  import. 

Finally,  the  system  of  party-promoted  political  education, 
now  subject  to  so  many  abuses,  can  be  greatly  elevated  and 
renovated  by  bringing  its  occasions  into  the  light  and  giving 
them  a  dignified  setting.  The  use  of  school  auditoriums  for 
political  rallies  will  also  tend  to  lessen  the  need  of  campaign 
contributions  and  thus  cut  off  some  of  their  train  of  evils. 
But  more  important  still,  the  recognition  of  this  function  as 
an  educational  responsibility  will  hasten  the  time  when  civic 
intelligence  will  be  publicly  inculcated  and  not  longer  be  sub- 
ject to  the  subversions  and  distortions  incidental  to  promotion 
at  the  hands  of  selfish  and  mercenarily  biased  factions. 

In  conclusion,  the  consciousness  of  social  needs  and  social 
processes  in  the  direction  of  secondary  education  means  its 
approximation  in  content  and  method  to  the  life  for  which  it 
endeavors  to  prepare  its  students.  Complete  identification 
with  life  would  be  a  disaster.  But  getting  the  full  strength 
of  its  vital  forces  behind  the  ideals  brought  down  from  above 
will  bring  a  wonderful  quickening. 

TOPICS   FOR   FURTHER   STUDY 

1.  Enumerate  the  purely  individual  aspects  of  elementary  public 
school  instruction.     Of  secondary  education. 

2.  Contrast  expressions  of  the  social  motive  in  early  American  educa- 
tion laws  with  those  to  be  found  in  the  recent  enactments  of  Wisconsin, 
New  York,  and  other  states. 

3.  Make  a  complete  list  of  the  social  demands  upon  public  education 
and  distinguish  those  which  apply  respectively  to  elementary  and  to 
high  schools. 

4.  Describe  briefly  the  teaching  process  as  it   existed  among  two 
primitive  peoples. 

5.  State  all  of  the  disadvantages  you  would  experience  if  you  under- 
took to  acquire  the  equivalent  of  a  high  school  education   by  yourself; 
that  is,  without  attending  school  or  having  tutors. 

6.  Rank  the  various  subjects  in  your  curriculum  in  the  order  of 
their  importance  as  preparations  for  citizenship. 


Social  Aspects  of  High  School  Education     743 

7.  Differentiate  by  means  of  illustrations  the  typical  learning  pro- 
cesses of  the  classroom  and  of  daily  life  outside  the  school. 

8.  Which  do  you  find  more  enjoyable,  writing  an  essay  that  is  re- 
quired in  the  English  course,  or  a  letter  of  equal  length  to  a  friend? 
Analyze  the  reasons  for  your  preference. 

9.  What  occasions  outside  of  those  connected  with  the  school  and 
the  civil  service  are  most  similar  —  in  character,  not  significance  —  to 
term  examinations? 

10.  In  the  case  of  which  subjects  in  your  curriculum  could  the  in- 
struction  be   organized   upon   a   more  cooperative,   democratic   basis? 
Which  not  ?     (rive  reasons. 

11.  Characterize  the  form  of  government   in  the  usual  classroom. 
What  changes  would  need  to  take  place  to  make  it  democratic  ? 

12.  Expound  the  relation  of  recreation  to  morality. 

13.  Give  the  reasons  for  holding  political  discussions  in  public  school 
buildings. 

14.  What  is  community  art  ? 

15.  How  far  does  the  education  law  of  your  state  authorize  school 
boards  to  undertake  the  various  extension  activities  outlined  in  the 
foregoing  chapter  ? 

REFERENCES 

BI.OOMFIELD,  MEYER.     The  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth.     Boston,  101 1. 
BOOXE,  R.  G.     Manual  Training  as  a  Socializing  Factor.     Education, 

22:   305. 

DENISON,  ELSA.     Helping  School  Children.     New  York,  1912. 
DEWEY,  JOHN:     School  and  Society.     Chicago,  1899. 

The    School   as   a  Social  Center.     Elementary  School  Teacher,  3:73. 
DUTTON',  S.  T.,  and  SXEDDEX,  D.     Administration  of  Public  Education 

in  lite  United  States.     New  York,  1908. 
ELLWOOD,  C.  A.     Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems.     Chap.  XY 

of  Education  and  Social  Progress.  New  York,  1910. 
GRICE.  MARY  Y.  Home  and  School.  Philadelphia,  1909. 
GULICK,  LUTHER  H.  Popular  Recreation  and  Public  Morality.  Annals 

of  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  July,  1909. 
JKXKS,  JEREMIAH.     Citizenship  and  the  Schools.     New  York,  1906. 
JOHXSTOX,    CHARLES   H,    and   others.     High   School   Education.     New 

York.  1912. 

The  Modern  High  School.     New  York,  1914. 
Kixo,  IRYINT,.     Education  for  Social  Efficiency.     New  York,  1913. 

Social  Aspects  of  Education.     New  York,  1913. 
LEE,  JOSEPH.     Play  as  a  School  of  the  Citizen.     Charities,  18:  486-491. 


744  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

MONROE,  PAUL.  Influence  of  the  Growing  Perception  of  Human  Inter- 
relationship on  Education.  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  March, 
1913,  p.  622. 

MOWRY,  D.  Use  of  Schoolhouses  for  Other  than  School  Purposes.  Edu- 
cation, 29 :  92. 

PERRY,  CLARENCE  A.     School  as  a  Social  Center,  in  Cyclopedia  of  Edu- 
cation, Paul  Monroe,  ed.     New  York,  1914. 
Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant.     New  York,  1910. 

SCOTT,  C.  A.     Social  Education.     Boston,  1908. 

Students'  Aid  Committee  of  the  High  School  Teachers'  Association  of 
New  York  City,  E.  W.  Weaver,  Chairman.  Choosing  a  Career, 
and  other  vocational  bulletins.  1909. 

Tenth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education. 
Part  I,  "The  City  School  as  a  Community  Center";  Part  II, 
"The  Rural  School  as  a  Community  Center."  Edited  by  the  Sec- 
retary, S.  Chester  Parker,  University  of  Chicago.  1911. 

WARD,  E.  J.  Rochester  Social  Centers.  The  Playground  Association 
Proceedings,  3  :  38?-395-  JQ10- 

WARD,  E.  J.,  and  others.     The  Social  Center.     New  York,  1913. 

Pamphlets  of  Department  of  Recreation,  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
New  York. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE   REORGANIZATION  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 

THE  FORCES  PRODUCING  THE  PRESENT  REORGAN- 
IZATION IN  EDUCATION.  —  The  educational  systems  of 
all  civilized  countries  are  at  present  in  a  state  of  profound 
disturbance  and  transition.  As  a  consequence  of  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  developments  of  recent  decades,  the  demands 
upon  education  have  multiplied  and  grown  more  diversified. 
Increasing  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  social 
economy  on  the  one  hand  and  of  individual  human  psychol- 
ogy on  the  other  have  had  the  effect  of  revealing  to  us  the 
inadequacy  of  the  aims  which  now  control  in  education,  as 
well  as  the  uncertain  and  arbitrary  character  of  the  methods 
usually  employed  in  instructing  and  training  young  people. 

These  changes  are,  in  the  last  analysis,  due  to  two  funda- 
mental causes.  The  first  is  the  modern  political  or  social 
demand  for  universal  education  as  a  necessary  means  in  a 
democratic  society.  The  second  is  the  increasing  effort  among 
leaders  to  found  educational  practice,  so  far  as  may  be,  on  bases 
of  scientific  knowledge,  rather  than  on  tradition  or  on  practices 
which  have  grown  to  be  customary.  To  the  first  cause  are 
due  the  demands  for  free  elementary  and  higher  education ; 
for  compulsory  school  attendance ;  and  for  diversification  of 
educational  opportunities  to  fit  the  differing  needs  of  the 
various  groups  of  young  people,  for  all  of  whom  society  pur- 
poses to  secure  a  fair  and  generous  start  in  life.  To  the  second 
cause  are  due  modern  efforts  to  enrich  educational  programs ; 
to  ascertain  the  actual  values  of  the  historic  subjects  and  of 
the  methods  of  study  and  teaching  which  have  become  tradi- 
tional in  schools ;  to  study  experimentally  the  learning  pro- 

745 


746  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

cesses  of  children  and  adolescent  youth ;  and  to  scrutinize 
the  fields  of  modern  social  economy  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
what  are  actually  the  valid  aims  of  an  education  which  should 
be  purposefully  directed  towards  the  attainment  of  such  valu- 
able ends  as  those  embraced  under  the  broader  conceptions 
of  physical  efficiency,  vocational  power,  good  citizenship,  and 
broad  personal  culture. 

THE  REORGANIZATION  ALREADY  ACCOMPLISHED 
IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  —  Within  the  field  of  sec- 
ondary education  many  important  changes  in  practice  and 
theory  have  been  effected,  and  others  of  even  greater  impor- 
tance seem  to  be  impending.  High  schools  of  general  or 
liberal  education  have  been  so  widely  established  as  now  to 
be  accessible  without  fee  almost  everywhere  in  America. 
Attendance  on  these  schools  has  increased  during  recent  dec- 
ades at  a  rate  several  times  greater  than  that  of  population. 
Programs  of  instruction  have  become  more  flexible.  A  few 
of  the  historic  subjects  of  study  have  been  reshaped  so  as  to 
become  less  formal  and  perhaps  more  adapted  to  contem- 
porary needs.  The  general  conviction  has  arisen,  and  has 
been  widely  accepted,  that  the  workshop  and  other  commer- 
cial agencies  no  longer  give  satisfactory  vocational  training. 
It  may  well  become  a  legitimate  function  of  special  sec- 
ondary schools  to  insure,  at  least  in  part,  opportunities  for 
specialized  vocational  teaching.  In  a  number  of  respects, 
educational  dogmas  and  traditions  hitherto  influential  in  the 
field  of  the  general  theory  of  secondary  education  seem  to  be 
giving  way.  There  is  a  growing  tendency  to  demand  a  more 
scientific  analysis  of  purposes  and  methods  in  secondary 
schools. 

THE  REORGANIZATION  TO  BE  ACCOMPLISHED.  - 
In  the  main,  however,  the  changes  which  have  already  taken 
place  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  secondary  education  have 
been  due  to  a  growing  public  demand  for  the  provision  of  more 
accessible  and  more  varied  educational  opportunities.     Sec- 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     747 

ondary  schools  as  yet  exhibit  relatively  few  modifications  of 
practice  due  to  current  demands  for,  and  tendencies  toward, 
more  scientific  educational  theory  and  methods  based  upon 
scientific  principles.  It  is  not  surprising  that  this  should  be 
so.  The  two  sciences  upon  which,  in  the  last  analysis,  scien- 
tific educational  practice  must  be  based  —  namely,  sociology 
and  psychology  —  are  as  yet  in  only  the  very  early  stages  of 
sound  development.  It  is  from  sociology  and  its  concrete 
applications  in  social  economy  that  we  must  eventually  de- 
rive our  conscious  educational  aims  ;  and  it  is  upon  a  well-de- 
veloped knowledge  of  psychology  that  we  must  ultimately  rely 
for  the  foundations  of  method  —  a  term  which,  as  here  used, 
includes  not  only  the  actual  methods  of  giving  instruction  and 
training,  but  also  the  ways  and  means  of  organizing  the 
materials  wherewith  to  realize  educational  aims. 

In  the  meantime,  in  addition  to  administrative  changes, 
a  great  variety  of  more  or  less  fragmentary  empirical  studies 
are  in  progress  whereby  the  needs  of  society  and  the  individual 
are  being  ascertained,  with  a  view  to  at  least  a  clearer  defini- 
tion of  educational  aims  than  now  prevails.  On  the  other 
hand,  experimental  work  is  being  done  in  the  direction  of  dis- 
covering more  effective  methods  of  teaching.  In  consequence, 
some  of  the  traditions  of  secondary  education  are  being  under- 
mined and  much  conscious  effort  is  being  given  to  more  scien- 
tific formulation  of  purposes,  ways,  and  means. 

UNIFORMITY  IN  EXISTING  AIMS  AND  PRACTICES. 

The  controlling  aims  and  the  prevalent  practices  of  Ameri- 
can secondary  education,  as  that  has  been  and  still  largely  is 
organized,  are  capable  of  comparatively  simple  description, 
notwithstanding  the  enormous  recent  increase  in  the  number 
of  secondary  schools.  A  very  great  degree  of  uniformity  in 
training  of  teachers,  textbooks  used,  organization  of  classes, 
methods  of  instruction  followed,  and  standards  to  be  met, 
wTill  be  found  in  public  high  schools  from  Maine  to  California 
and  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  boundaries  of  the 


748  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

nation.  This  uniformity  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  the 
customs  and  traditions  which  had  become  established  when 
public  high  schools  first  came  into  existence  have  continued 
in  great  measure  unchanged  to  the  present  day.  The  agency 
most  immediately  responsible  for  this  has  been  the  American 
college.  In  the  college  the  large  majority  of  high  school 
teachers  have  been  trained.  College  men  have  written  the  ma- 
jority of  texts,  and  have  constituted  the  controlling  influence 
in  committees  organized  to  make  special  reports  dealing  with 
particular  phases  of  secondary  school  work.  The  colleges 
have,  through  their  admission  examinations  or  system  of  cer- 
tification, indicated  quite  definite  goals  to  be  reached,  espe- 
cially in  those  forms  of  organized  knowledge  and  skill  which 
written  examinations  can  test.  But,  in  fact,  the  so-called 
"dominance  of  the  college"  has  persisted  mainly  because 
educators,  whether  as  superintendents  or  as  teachers  and  prin- 
cipals of  secondary  schools,  have  not  been  disposed  or  have 
not  been  free  to  discover  and  formulate  more  serviceable  ends 
and  means  than  those  which  they  found  already  fixed  in  cus- 
tom and  which  the  college  continued  to  reflect. 

We  find,  therefore,  that  in  nearly  all  public  and  private 
secondary  schools  in  America  the  direct  and  controlling 
purpose  is  to  teach,  according  to  certain  accepted  methods, 
historic  academic  subjects  —  of  which  Latin,  Greek,  German, 
French,  algebra,  plane  geometry,  various  phases  of  history, 
English,  physics,  and  chemistry  are  the  more  prominent. 
The  content  actually  taught  within  each  subject,  as  well  as 
the  methods  employed  in  instruction  and  training,  have  been 
slowly  developed  through  the  imperfectly  analyzed  and  tested 
experience  of  many  decades,  or  even  centuries.  In  practice, 
the  "  mastery  "  of  these  subjects  constitutes  the  controlling 
aim  of  all  instruction  —  the  mastery,  that  is,  as  measured 
by  currently  approved  tests,  such  as  college  admission  ex- 
aminations, the  standards  of  college  instructors  assigned  to 
inspect  secondary  schools,  etc. 


The  Reorganisation  of  Secondary  Education     749 

It  is  alleged,  to  be  sure,  with  great  frequency  and  insistence, 
that  other  and  more  fundamental  aims  in  reality  control  in 
secondary  academic  education.  These  are  variously  described 
by  such  general  and  vague  terms  as  "  mental  training," 
"  general  culture,"  "  formation  of  character,"  "  development 
of  the  historic  sense,"  "  mastery  of  scientific  method,"  "  im- 
provement of  ability  to  use  English,"  "  development  of  think- 
ing powers,"  etc.  There  is,  however,  no  conclusive  evidence 
that  these  aims  have,  in  any  conscious  way,  affected  either 
the  choice  of  the  material  constituting  the  course  of  study  in 
each  subject,  or  the  methods  actually  employed  in  giving 
instruction  in  it.  What  is  clear  to  almost  every  teacher  and 
supervisor  is  that  the  intellectual  standards  of  attainment 
defined  in  examination  papers,  textbooks,  and  manuals  actually 
serve  as  indicating  aims  to  be  realized  and  therefore  control 
the  formulation  of  methods  of  instruction. 

RECENT  SPECIALIZATION  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS. - 
Besides  high  schools  devoted  primarily  to  the  giving  of  so- 
called  "  academic  education,"  we  find  in  recent  years,  espe- 
cially in  large  centers  of  population,  the  development  of 
special  high  schools,  or  of  non-academic  departments  within 
general  high  schools.  These  have  come  into  existence  pri- 
marily in  response  to  a  public  demand  for  forms  of  second- 
ary education  reflecting  more  positively  the  practical  or 
vocational  activities  of  contemporary  life.  In  practice,  the 
schools  or  departments  thus  formed  —  including  not  only 
technical  or  manual  arts  high  schools,  but  also  commercial 
departments  and  schools,  agricultural  schools,  etc.  —  do  not 
actually  realize  vocational  ends  except  in  rare  instances. 
They  constitute  essentially  a  new  and  modern  form  of  gen- 
eral secondary  education.  The  vocational  purpose,  as  judged 
by  the  means  and  methods  adopted,  is  incidental.  Their 
methods  of  instruction  are  usually  patterned  closely  after 
those  of  general  high  schools. 

Some   vocational   secondary   day   schools   are  now   to   be 


750  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

found,  both  in  the  industrial  and  in  the  commercial  field.  A 
very  few  vocational  schools  of  agriculture  and  of  home  mak- 
ing also  exist.  So  few  in  the  aggregate,  however,  are  these 
vocational  schools  that  one  must  recognize  them  as  constitut- 
ing the  beginnings  of  the  realization  of  a  new  demand,  rather 
than  in  any  large  measure  the  satisfaction  of  that  demand. 

FUNDAMENTAL  NEED  FOR  FURTHER  ADVANCE 
IN  THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  AIMS.  -  In  all  second- 
ary schools  the  greatest  single  necessity  and  opportunity  for 
reorganization  during  the  next  generation  will  be  found  in 
such  a  formulation  and  statement  of  valid  aims  as  will  enable 
these  schools  to  direct  their  energies  more  purposefully  than 
hitherto  towards  the  attainment  of  ends  that  are  demon- 
strably  worth  while,  and  to  discover  and  define  the  methods 
by  which  these  aims  can  be  most  effectively  realized.  It 
should  be  clear  that  no  scientific  educational  program  can 
be  based  permanently  upon  the  mere  mastery  of  certain  sub- 
jects of  study.  Such  mastery  must  be  regarded,  not  as  an 
end  in  itself,  but  only  as  a  means  to  other  and  more  fun- 
damental ends,  which  should  gradually  become  capable  of 
examination,  definition,  and  evaluation. 

The  probable  futility  of  much  of  contemporary  secondary 
education  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  teachers  in 
secondary  schools,  and  to  a  large  extent  those  who  direct 
these  teachers,  have  accepted  as  definite  and  working  goals 
the  memorization  or  other  specific  form  of  mastery  of  certain 
bodies  of  highly  organized  knowledge,  as  shown  in  the  ability 
to  pass  prescribed  examinations.  When  these  teachers  are 
asked  to  explain  why  it  is  desirable  that  the  subjects  or  phases 
of  subjects  in  which  they  train  their  pupils  are  preferable  to 
other  work  that  might  be  done,  they  fall  back  upon  certain 
ancient  vague  and  general  platitudes  as  to  the  clisciplinary 
value  of  studies,  the  value  of  the  study  as  a  tool  in  further 
investigation  or  study,  or  the  contribution  of  the  study  to 
character  formation. 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education      751 

For  example,  in  almost  all  academic  high  schools  the  study 
of  Latin  has  gradually  assumed  a  fairly  definite  form.  The 
grammar,  text,  and  composition  to  be  mastered  are  quite 
clearly  indicated  in  college  entrance  requirements,  textbooks, 
committee  reports,  and  the  like.  The  annual  examinations 
in  this  subject,  or  the  standards  of  accrediting  authorities, 
serve  to  indicate  to  the  teacher  quite  definitely  the  degree 
of  proficiency  which  the  pupil  is  expected  to  attain.  The 
goals  which  determine  the  teacher's  activities  are,  therefore, 
to  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  mastery  of  this  clearly  defined 
body  of  Latin.  When  the  educational  desirability  of  Latin  is 
questioned,  the  teacher,  shocked  by  the  impertinence  or  the 
ignorance  shown  by  the  query,  falls  back  upon  vague  general- 
izations about  the  use  of  such  a  study  as  a  means  of  training 
the  mind,  or  giving  increased  capacity  to  use  the  mother 
tongue,  or  opening  the  doors  to  richer  conceptions  of  the 
sources  and  developments  of  civilization.  But  it  is  now 
becoming  clear  that  all  of  these  generalizations  express  only 
hopes  and  faiths.  They  do  not  in  any  positive  way  shape 
the  methods  employed  in  teaching  Latin  and  never  have  done 
so ;  nor  has  any  demonstration  been  made  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  study  as  now  pursued  actually  contributes  to  their 
present  realization. 

Another  example  can  be  found  in  the  study  of  algebra  and 
plane  geometry.  Even  when  Latin,  in  many  schools,  was 
placed  upon  an  elective  basis,  these  branches  of  mathematical 
study  continued  to  be  universally  prescribed.  It  is  excep- 
tional to  find  a  high  school  from  which  pupils  are  permitted 
to  graduate  without  having  passed  in  these  two  subjects. 
It  is  still  more  exceptional  to  find  colleges  admitting  students 
to  degree  courses  unless  such  students  have  met  certain  re- 
quirements in  algebra  and  geometry.  The  content  of  these 
subjects  has  been,  for  many  years,  quite  definitely  outlined. 
In  textbooks,  college  entrance  requirements,  and  the  reports 
of  committees  the  material  which  is  expected  to  constitute 


752  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

these  studies  will  be  found  mapped  out,  often  in  great  detail ; 
and  here,  again,  the  standards  of  attainment  are  indicated 
with  considerable  precision  in  entrance  examinations  and 
the  requirements  of  accrediting  authorities.  Only  rarely 
are  teachers  called  upon  to  prove  the  value  of  these  studies, 
so  universally  have  educators  and  citizens  been  induced  to 
accept,  without  questioning,  their  validity  for  educational 
purposes.  The  aims  of  the  teachers  of  these  subjects  are, 
therefore,  quite  definite ;  but  obviously,  these  aims  cannot 
be  described  as  ultimate,  in  any  true  sense.  Here,  too,  when 
inquiry  is  pressed,  educators  generally  fall  back  upon  easy 
generalizations  as  to  the  value  of  these  subjects  in  mental 
training,  as  instruments  required  in  further  study,  etc.  - 
ends  which  have  actually  never  been  worked  over  and  estab- 
lished in  any  scientific  manner. 

Similar  illustrations  may  be  found  in  almost  all  of  the  so- 
called  "  academic  "  and  even  in  the  vocational  subjects  now 
taught  in  secondary  schools.  What  are  the  actual  ends  which 
do  control,  as  contrasted  with  those  which  should  control,  in 
the  teaching  of  physics,  chemistry,  and  biology?  Is  there 
any  evidence  that  the  study  of  history  as  now  pursued  in 
secondary  schools  contributes  in  any  important  degree  to 
genuine  educational  ends?  In  American  high  schools  we 
expend  vast  sums  in  the  teaching  of  French  and  German ; 
what  are  the  results?  What  objects  have  we  actually  in 
view  in  teaching  these  modern  languages?  Are  these  objects 
realized,  and  to  what  degree?  What  modifications  of  aim 
are  necessary  if  we  are  to  find  aims  which  are  worth  while 
and  which  are  capable  of  being  realized  with  the  resources 
at  our  disposal?  These  and  hundreds  of  similar  questions 
are  to  be  very  carefully  analyzed  in  the  near  future,  as  the 
demand  for  efficient  education  becomes  more  insistent  and 
educators  assume  a  more  scientific  spirit  toward  the  problems 
involved. 

But  at  the  outset  one  fundamental  fact  must  be  accepted : 


Tke  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     753 

namely,  that  a  formulation  of  the  ends  of  secondary  education 
merely  in  terms  of  the  mastery  of  subject  matter  cannot  be 
long  held  as  an  efficient  basis  for  the  making  of  programs  and 
the  devising  of  educational  methods.  Furthermore,  we  must 
view  with  skepticism  all  attempts  to  formulate  educational 
aims  in  terms  of  vague  statements  expressive  of  social  worths. 
These  are  not  only  misleading,  but  they  serve  no  useful  pur- 
pose in  indicating  the  means  and  methods  by  which  they  are 
to  be  realized.  Such  generalizations  nearly  always,  of  course, 
indicate  ends  that  are  worth  while ;  but  they  serve  no  more 
useful  purpose  than  would  the  general  assertion  that  it  is  the 
business  of  human  beings  to  strive  for  health,  without  indicat- 
ing any  of  the  means  by  which  disease  may  be  remedied  and 
various  forms  of  health  and  strength  conserved. 

REORGANIZATION  IN  METHODS  OF  TEACHING 
AND  OF  PROCEDURE.  —  In  the  reorganized  secondary 
education  of  the  future,  the  general  principles  upon  which 
teaching  practice  will  be  based  may  be  expected  to  differ 
greatly  from  those  which  have  now  become  customary.  So 
long  as  methods  of  teaching  are  developed  more  or  less  un- 
consciously, it  is  unavoidable  that  certain  practices  should 
early  become  stereotyped,  and  should  long  continue  with  the 
effect  of  excluding  experimental  work  in  the  direction  of 
newer  and  better  methods.  For  example,  until  recent  years 
verbal  memorization  as  the  chief  method  and  test  of  learn- 
ing prevailed,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  form. 
More  recently  there  has  been  substituted  for  verbal  memori- 
zation, drill  in  question  and  answer,  looking  to  the  analysis 
and  statement  of  facts  as  verbally  presented  in  textbooks. 
There  is  no  insistence  that  the  student  shall  use  the  words 
of  the  text,  but  there  is  constant  expectation  that  he  shall 
describe  the  facts  substantially  as  presented  in  the  text. 
Under  these  conditions,  the  use  of  the  constructive  imagi- 
nation and  an  inductive  approach  to  knowledge  become 
practically  impossible.  In  a  few  subjects,  the  so-called 


754  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

11  topical  method  "  has  gained  vogue,  while  in  science  teach- 
ing the  introduction  of  laboratory  work  has  resulted  in  still 
another  type  of  method  of  teaching  and  study  which  has  now 
become  almost  stereotyped. 

But  methods  of  systematic  teaching  and  learning  are  still 
unscientific,  and  tend  to  assume  the  rigidity  of  all  practices 
resting  mainly  upon  custom  and  belief.  In  the  pedagogy  of 
secondary  education  as  thus  far  organized,  there  is  as  yet 
little  recognition  of  the  value  and  the  possibilities  of  informal 
or  so-called  "  natural  "  learning. 

Owing  to  the  character  of  the  aims  and  tests  now  prevailing, 
methods  of  teaching  are,  as  stated  above,  almost  invariably 
shaped  to  produce  the  particular  results  in  mastery  of  organized 
knowledge  which  are  demanded  and  which  will  show  in  writ- 
ten examinations.  This  produces,  for  example,  the  curious 
anomaly  which  we  find  in  the  teaching  of  English  literature. 
It  will  be  readily  agreed  that  the  most  satisfactory  definition 
we  can  give  of  what  should  be  the  valid  purposes  of  the  second- 
ary school  in  the  teaching  of  literature  is  appreciation  of  the 
best  writings.  The  methods  now  employed,  however,  are 
such  as  to  put  a  premium,  not  upon  appreciation,  but  upon 
intellectual  mastery,  usually  in  the  form  of  memorization  of 
innumerable  details,  coupled  with  some  ability  to  analyze 
texts  and  to  make  approved  deductions. 

But  in  a  reorganized  secondary  education,  suited  to  an 
age  of  science,  conscious  and  purposeful  method  must  ulti- 
mately be  worked  out  experimentally  in  the  light  of  clearly 
defined  aims.  The  few  present  and  imperfect  examples  of 
this  are  to  be  found  in  our  systematic  attempts  to  prepare 
students  for  examinations,  in  the  teaching  of  modern  languages, 
and  in  the  teaching  of  written  composition.  In  these  cases, 
aims,  whether  valid  or  not  in  the  better  sense,  tend  to  be- 
come somewhat  clear,  and  experimental  work  to  find  the 
best  methods  of  realizing  them  has,  in  a  measure,  developed. 

But  in  such  subjects  as  science,  history,  literature,  mathe- 


T/LC  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     755 

matics,  the  classical  languages,  and  some  of  the  so-called 
"  practical  subjects,"  where  as  yet  no  clearly  denned  aims 
exist,  it  is  still  impracticable  to  develop  method  experimentally. 
We  possess  no  standards  of  attainment  either  in  quality  or 
in  degree. 

EXISTING  NEED  FOR  REORGANIZATION  CAN  BE 
UNDERSTOOD  ONLY  THROUGH  A  STUDY  OF  THE 
EVOLUTION  OF  EXISTING  PRACTICES. —To  under- 
stand secondary  education  as  it  is  now  organized,  we  must 
examine  the  various  stages  of  its  evolution.  Its  present 
aims,  content,  and  practices  have  been  necessarily  developed 
in  prescientilic  stages.  Most  of  the  subjects  of  study  now 
found  represented  at  one  time  ends  valuable  in  themselves. 
Learners  sought  teachers  in  these  fields,  and  men  undertook 
the  teaching  of  these  subjects  as  a  profession.  Gradually, 
bodies  of  organized  knowledge  were  shaped.  We  know,  of 
course,  that  Latin  and  Greek  were  eagerly  studied  at  one 
time  by  persons  needing  to  use  them  as  tools,  or  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gratifying  higher  forms  of  intellectual  curiosity.  The 
commoner  branches  of  mathematics  were  introduced  into 
secondary  schools  largely  as  fundamental  means  of  preparing 
for  certain  occupations.  During  the  nineteenth  century 
the  widespread  interest  in  science  had  the  effect  of  inducing 
many  persons  to  seek,  in  the  various  branches  of  physical  and 
biological  science,  either  means  of  gratifying  other  intellectual 
interest  or  instruments  that  might  be  used  vocationally. 

What  a  few  first  needed,  demanded,  and  prized,  finally 
became  through  imitation  the  demand  of  the  many.  Second- 
ary schools  found,  in  these  subjects,  knowledge  well  organized 
for  teaching  purposes,  and  the  means  of  holding  students  to 
definite  tasks.  In  time,  the  subjects  thus  established  became 
ends  in  themselves,  even  long  after  their  intrinsic  value  had 
disappeared.  This  process  of  evolution  has  given  us  in  large 
measure,  not  only  the  organized  subjects  as  they  now  stand, 
but  also  the  well-established  methods  of  teaching  them. 


756  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

CHARACTER  OF  PROSPECTIVE  REORGANIZATION.- 

It  is  probable  that  such  reorganization  of  secondary  education 
as  will  take  place  during  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  will  be 
effected  in  part  by  modifications  and  new  adaptations  of  exist- 
ing subjects,  and  in  part  by  the  development  and  formulation 
of  new  subjects  of  study  and  training,  perhaps  under  names 
not  widely  used  now.  Obviously,  the  most  rational  way  to 
reorganize  secondary  education  would  be  to  investigate  and 
define,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  fundamental  needs  of  con- 
temporary society  and  of  individuals  in  that  society,  and 
then  so  to  analyze  these  needs  as  to  discover  by  what  means 
and  methods  and  to  what  extent  they  can  be  reasonably 
satisfied  through  educational  activities  in  schools.  An  analy- 
sis of  objectives  of  this  character  would  give  us  a  basis  whereon 
we  could  develop  experiments  with  a  view  to  discovering  the 
best  methods  of  teaching.  The  field  for  such  an  analytical 
study  is  the  larger  social  economy  of  the  day,  coupled  with 
the  needs  and  possibilities  of  individual  development,  and 
finally  the  actual  and  potential  educational  accomplishments 
of  other  agencies  than  schools.  In  this  way  could  be  estab- 
lished finally  the  specific  functions  which  it  should  be  the 
obligation  of  the  schools  to  undertake,  and  which  it  should 
be  within  their  means  to  carry  out. 

A  complete  analysis  of  the  kind  here  suggested  must  be 
the  work  of  many  years.  Nevertheless,  even  within  the 
present  field  of  organized  experience  and  with  the  rapidly 
increasing  scientific  knowledge  of  society,  it  should  be  possible 
to  devise  in  large  measure  a  series  of  educational  aims  or  ends, 
which  can  be  made  the  basis  of  further  study  and  experimental 
work.  To  this  end,  the  analysis  given  below  is  submitted  as 
a  tentative  contribution. 

AGENCIES  OR  INSTITUTIONS  CONTRIBUTING  TO 
EDUCATION.  —  For  the  purposes  of  this  analysis  we  may 
consider  the  rounded  individual  whom  it  is  the 'ultimate  aim 
of  society  to  produce,  as  manifesting  the  effects  of  three 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     757 

different  sets  of  influences  —  namely,  those  due  to  heredity, 
those  due  to  nurture  (food,  shelter,  play,  etc.),  and  those 
due  to  education  (education  being  here  limited  to  the  more 
or  less  conscious  control  by  individuals  and  social  agencies 
of  the  formation  of  habits,  appreciation,  sentiments,  knowl- 
edge, and  ideals). 

Education  as  a  means  of  contributing  to  the  development 
of  the  completed  individual  is  effected  through  many  agencies 
of  a  more  or  less  purposeful  nature.  Among  these  the  home, 
the  school,  and  the  church  are  the  most  immediately  con- 
spicuous. There  should  be  included,  also,  the  workshop 
(meaning  thereby  any  place  where  young  people  are  em- 
ployed in  systematic  productive  activities),  the  club,  the  play- 
ground, the  press,  the  stage,  the  library,  the  police  power,  and 
others  less  clearly  differentiated  and  perhaps  less  influential. 

The  relative  capacity  of  the  foregoing  educational  agencies 
to  perform  specific  and  effective  educational  functions  will 
vary  greatly  from  age  to  age.  The  school  itself,  as  well  as 
the  library,  the  police  power,  the  church,  the  press,  and  the 
stage,  are  later  differentiations  from  the  household  and  larger 
group  activities  of  earlier  times.  Vocational  education,  so 
far  as  the  vast  majority  of  occupations  are  concerned,  has 
always  been  obtained  under  the  conditions  of  the  workshop. 
Nevertheless,  we  find  that  vocational  schools  were  established 
even  centuries  ago,  to  give  vocational  training  in  such  fields  as 
medicine,  law,  theology,  and  war  leadership.  For  these  call- 
ings the  apprenticeship  methods  previously  employed  had 
proved  inadequate.  More  recently,  schools  have  been  or- 
ganized for  certain  of  the  commercial  callings,  and  in  a  few 
instances  for  agriculture,  and  for  a  few  of  the  trades.  The 
establishment  of  vocational  schools  has  resulted  from  a  grow- 
ing recognition  of  the  fact  that  in  many  occupational  fields 
the  right  kind  of  vocational  training,  if  it  is  to  be  had  at  all, 
can  be  obtained  only  by  creating  and  setting  apart  special 
educational  agencies  for  these  purposes. 


758  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Again,  we  find  that  the  church  as  an  agency  of  moral 
education  fails  to  reach  a  considerable  element  in  the  com- 
munity. There  is  a  tendency  to  demand  that  schools  under- 
take to  make  up  for  the  deficiency.  There  is  now  a  dis- 
position to  bring  the  police  power,  through  the  juvenile  court 
and  the  reform  school,  into  close  relationship  with  systematic 
school  education.  The  library  and  the  school  are  coming 
nearer  together.  There  are  prospects  that  stage  and  press, 
as  educational  agencies,  will  also  be  influenced  by  cooperation 
with  schools.  f  Everywhere  we  find  a  tendency  to  enlarge  the 
functions  of  the  school  as  a  specialized  educational  agency, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  to  some  extent  the  other 
agencies,  such  as  the  library,  the  police  power,  the  play- 
ground, and  the  club  are  also  increasing  in  educational 
efficiency. 

Each  of  these  educational  agencies  contributes  in  a  special 
way  to  final  and  complete  forms  of  efficiency.  The  home  is 
concerned  fundamentally  with  the  formation  of  moral  habits, 
and  with  such  primitive  cultural  factors  as  the  acquisition  of 
vernacular  speech,  the  inheritance  of  family  customs  and 
traditions,  etc.  The  church  undertakes  primarily  to  effect 
the  formation  of  moral  ideals  and  to  insure  social  intelligence 
in  certain  quite  definite  directions.  The  function  of  the 
workshop  is  found  primarily  in  connection  with  vocational 
education.  Each  one  of  these  agencies  may,  therefore,  be 
analyzed  from  the  standpoint  of  its  actual  or  potential  con- 
tribution to  a  rounded  and  complete  education. 

THE  SCHOOL  AS  THE  SPECIAL  AGENCY  OF 
EDUCATION.  -—  Because  the  school  is  a  specialized  and 
derivative  institution,  it  is  evident  that  we  may  continue 
this  process  of  analysis  to  the  point  where,  the  possibilities 
of  the  other  educational  agencies  having  been  defined,  the 
essential  function  of  schools  in  the  educational  process  can 
be  stated  and  measured.  This  may  properly  be  described 
as  a  residual  function.  Historically  and  politically  it  is  cor- 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     759 

rect  to  look  upon  the  school  as  a  special  agency  created  pri- 
marily by  society  for  the  performance  of  those  educational 
functions  which  society  needs  under  existing  conditions,  and 
which  other  less  specialized  educational  agencies  cannot 
easily,  economically,  or  effectively  perform. 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  AIMS  AND  PROCESSES 
OF  EDUCATION  AS  DETERMINING  ITS  REORGAN- 
IZATION. —  The  process  of  analyzing  educational  aims  and 
possibilities  may  be  carried  further  in  the  direction  of  or- 
ganizing into  categories  the  results  which  education  is  ex- 
pected to  accomplish.  In  the  light  of  present  knowledge, 
the  four  principal  categories  may  be  described  under  the 
heads  of  physical  education,  vocational  education,  social  edu- 
cation, and  cultural  education.  Physical  education  is  here 
defined  as  any  form  of  education  whose  primary  and  con- 
trolling purpose  is  to  establish  those  habits,  to  impart  that 
knowledge,  and  to  inculcate  the  ideals,  which  make  for  pro- 
longed physical  efficiency.  Vocational  education  is  defined 
as  any  form  of  education  whose  primary  and  controlling  pur- 
pose is  to  fit  youths  for  specific  occupations  whereby  men 
support  themselves  in  the  world  of  contemporary  economic 
activity.  Social  education  is  here  defined  as  any  form  of 
education  the  primary  and  controlling  purpose  of  which  is  to 
affect  group  activities  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of 
modern  civilized  society.  Social  education  includes  moral, 
ethical,  political,  and  a  large  part  of  religious  education.  It 
is  directed  toward  the  formation  of  the  habits,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  appreciations,  the  imparting  of  .the  knowledge, 
and  the  formation  of  the  ideals  that  underlie  effective  partici- 
pation in  group  activities,  such  as  those  of  the  home,  the  state, 
and  society  generally.  Cultural  education  is  defined  as  any 
form  of  education  whose  primary  and  controlling  purpose  is 
to  develop  in  the  individual  intellectual  and  aesthetic  apprecia- 
tions, tastes,  ideals,  and  interests  that  make  for  the  refine- 
ment of  manners  and  the  aesthetic  and  intellectual  develop- 


760  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

ment  which  are  comprised  under  the  general  term  "  personal 
culture." 

From  the  point  of  view  of  this  analysis,  it  is  also  obvious 
that  the  various  agencies  of  education  described  above  differ 
as  regards  the  departments  of  education  in  which  their  best 
results  are  achieved.  For  example,  we  think  of  the  church 
as  being  primarily  concerned  with  socal  education,  the  work- 
shop with  vocational  education,  the  home  and  the  playground 
with  physical  education,  the  library,  the  press,  and  the  stage 
with  cultural  education,  etc. 

In  order,  however,  to  discover  goals  which  shall  be  of  use 
in  framing  programs  of  school  education,  it  is  expedient  that 
we  continue  the  process  of  analysis  further,  with  a  view  to 
defining  various  social  utilities  (i.e.  ends  that  are  socially 
worth  while)  in  a  sufficiently  concrete  and  definite  form  to 
make  possible  the  use  of  such  clearly  perceived  goals  as  guides 
in  the  development  of  educational  methods.  The  following 
are  tentative  proposals  to  this  end. 

Physical  Education.  —  The  ends  or  objects  of  physical 
education,  for  example,  may  in  part  be  analyzed  into  the 
specific  procedures  which  shall  result  in:  i.  The  formation 
of  various  groups  of  personal  habits  which  have  demonstrated 
value  in  efficient  physical  well-being.  2.  Clearly  defined 
knowledge  of  certain  established  principles  and  practices  of 
hygiene,  the  possession  of  which,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, will  enable  the  individual  to  secure  healthful  living, 
and  to  withstand  unhygienic  conditions  and  influences. 
These  ends  may  be  further  subdivided  and  treated  under 
such  specific  heads  as  "  hygiene  of  nutrition,"  "  hygiene  of 
organs  of  sight,"  "  hygiene  of  the  teeth,"  "  prevention  of 
bacterial  infection,"  etc.  3.  The  establishment,  by  proper 
educational  processes,  of  ideals  of  physical  well-being.  Non- 
school  agencies  such  as  the  Boy  Scout  movement  are  even 
now  making  suggestive  and  important  contributions  in  this 
direction.  Athletics  and  gymnastics,  properly  inspired  and 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     761 

conducted,  also  have  important  bearings  on  the  formation  of 
ideals  of  physical  well-being.  4.  The  physical  development, 
through  specific  training,  of  malformed  or  unformed  organs, 
or  the  promotion  of  functional  activities  by  suitable  educa- 
tional exercises.  Many  of  the  valid  special  aims  of  physical 
education  are  already  fairly  well  denned  in  the  best  of  current 
practice  both  in  private  and  in  public  schools. 

Vocational  Education.  —  In  the  field  of  vocational  edu- 
cation, it  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  there  have 
been  organized  schools  designed  to  reach  the  rank  and  file  of 
our  workers  and  to  train  for  the  non-professional  occupations. 
For  many  centuries,  a  few  select  schools  have  existed  for  those 
entering  the  so-called  "  professions."  It  is  now  apparent  that 
apprenticeship  and  the  other  means  of  so-called  "  shop  train- 
ing" for  vocation  have  diminished  greatly  in  their  efficacy 
as  agencies  of  vocational  training.  Intelligent  workers  in  all 
phases  of  social  economy  now  realize  that  it  is  indispensable 
for  society  to  undertake,  in  a  systematic  way  in  schools,  the 
vocational  education  of  those  to  whom  skill  and  technical 
knowledge  will  be  necessary  assets  in  their  future  callings. 

The  specific  objectives,  or  utilities,  to  be  realized  through 
vocational  education  must,  of  course,  be  as  numerous  and 
varied  as  are  the  specialized  occupations  which  men  and 
women  enter  under  present  conditions.  It  is  now  generally 
recognized  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  general  voca- 
tional education.  The  only  true  vocational  education  is  that 
which  bases  its  aims  and  practices  upon  the  recognized  needs  of 
some  definite  calling,  or  group  of  very  closely  related  callings. 
To  this  end,  we  can  classify  occupations,  although  not  com- 
pletely, under  such  general  heads  as :  the  professions ;  the 
agricultural  callings  ;  the  commercial  callings  ;  the  industrial 
callings ;  the  household  arts  callings ;  and  the  nautical  call- 
ings. Within  each  of  these  fields  it  is  possible  to  differentiate 
many  occupations  for  which  specific  training  in  schools  may 
now  be  given. 


762  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Expert  opinion  is  inclining  strongly  to  the  view  that  suc- 
cessful vocational  education  will  require  as  a  condition  of  its 
efficiency  in  most  fields,  and  more  particularly  in  those  fol- 
lowed by  the  rank  and  file  of  workers,  a  large  degree  of  con- 
centration in  the  actual  practice  of  the  activities  characteristic 
of  the  calling  towards  proficiency  in  which  pupils  are  being 
trained.  The  so-called  related  technical  education  and 
whatever  other  training  may  be  designed  to  give  vocational 
insight  must  be  effected  largely  upon  foundations  of  habits, 
knowledge,  and  ideals  already  established  through  actual 
practice  of  the  more  vital  phases  of  the  occupation  itself. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  so  many  educators  are  now  turning 
towards  employers  and  others  in  charge  of  industrial  activities 
with  a  view  to  procuring  their  cooperation  in  devising  pro- 
grams of  satisfactory  vocational  training.  If  such  cooperation 
cannot  be  achieved  in  any  particular  calling,  it  will  be  incum- 
bent upon  the  school  itself  to  develop  the  proper  shops,  farms, 
commercial  activities,  or  other  means  of  providing  a  basis  of 
practical  experience  as  a  means  of  giving  an  effective  education. 

Social  Education.  —  Under  the  general  head  of  social  edu- 
cation are  here  included  all  those  special  forms  of  training 
in  habits,  appreciations,  sentiments,  knowledge,  and  ideals 
which  have  an  important  bearing  on  social  or  group  life.  It 
is  recognized,  of  course,  that  physical  education  and  cultural 
education  make  important,  but  nevertheless  incidental,  con- 
tributions of  by-products  to  social  education  as  here  defined. 
It  is  clearly  possible  and  desirable  to  make  social  education 
an  end  or  aim  in  itself,  within  due  limits,  especially  in  second- 
ary schools.  .But  to  define  a  profitable  field  of  activity  for 
the  school,  careful  attention  must  be  given  to  the  vast  possi- 
bilities, and  to  the  actual  accomplishments,  of  the  home,  the 
church,  the  club,  and  miscellaneous  associations,  in  shaping 
social  habits  and  ideals,  and  in  developing  social  intelligence. 

After  due  recognition  shall  have  been  given  to  the  efficacy 
of  the  more  or  less  organized  efforts  of  these  non-school 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     763 

agencies,  the  function  of  the  secondary  school  in  social  educa- 
tion then  remains  to  be  defined.  Emphasis  has  often  been 
laid,  and  rightly,  upon  the  fact  that  the  secondary  school, 
dealing,  as  it  does,  with  adolescents,  possesses  a  peculiar  field 
of  opportunity  in  the  shaping  of  the  finer  social  ideals,  such 
as  those  connected  with  general  service  to  society,  altruism, 
and  political  insight. 

The  making  of  an  effective  program  of  social  education  will 
require  the  formulation  of  a  large  variety  of  ends,  each  repre- 
senting some  form  of  social  utility,  towards  the  attainment 
of  which  secondary  school  practices  may  be  directed.  It  is 
here  practicable  only  to  give  samples  of  these. 

1.  Team  play,  whether  in  physical,  vocational,  or  cultural 
matters,  offers  an  opportunity  for  the  development  of  certain 
habits  of  cooperation  which,  once  established,  may- be  expected 
to  blend  into  the  larger  social  effectiveness  of  the  adult. 

2.  Knowledge  of  the  common  civic  activities  carried  on  in 
the  community,  with  provision  that  in  the  process  of  learning 
these  the  student  may  observe  and  even  participate  where 
practicable,  constitutes  a  valuable  end  of  local  civic  education. 

3.  Habituation  to  a  sound  moral  working  order,  including 
a  measure  of  self-government,  may  be  an  important  factor  in 
social  training. 

4.  It  is  possible  to  inspire  ideals  of  social  service,  —  these, 
as  far    as    practicable,  being    developed  in  connection  with 
the  pursuit  of  attainable  and  practical  ends,  such  as  those 
found   in   local    community  civic   activities,  local   forms   of 
charity,  etc. 

5.  It  is  also  possible,  in  the  secondary  school,  to  develop 
perspective  and  vision  as  to  special  forms  of  social  activities, 
such  as  the  economic  development  of  the  community,  rec- 
reational   opportunities,   cooperative    sanitation,  cooperative 
industrial  development,  territorial  differentiation  of  industry, 
and  the  like.     As  a  means  of  promoting  this  vision  or  per- 
spective,   history   will    contribute   valuable   elements.     It   is 


764  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

essential,  however,  that  the  pursuit  of  these  ends  should  always 
be  begun  in  the  environment,  and  that  only  after  this  begin- 
ning should  there  be  a  spreading  outward. 

6.  It  is  also  possible  to  do  much  at  this  stage  in  creating 
moral  and  social  ideals  in  definitely  differentiated  fields, 
such  as  the  humane  treatment  of  animals,  reverence  for  the 
helpless  or  the  aged,  thoroughness  of  work,  and  the  like.  For 
this  purpose  art,  literature,  and  history  may  contribute  im- 
portant elements,  no  less  than  the  close  study  of  the  social 
environment  of  the  pupil. 

In  these  and  scores  of  other  directions  it  will  be  possible 
to  set  up  more  or  less  definitive  goals,  each  of  which  may  be 
attained  at  an  appropriate  time  and  through  the  use  of  ap- 
propriate materials  and  personal  agencies.  Educational 
efforts  in  these  directions  are  all  designed  to  promote  the 
development  of  those  habits,  sentiments,  appreciations,  ideas, 
and  ideals  that  finally  blend  themselves  into  what  we  call 
"  moral  character,"  "  ethical  standards  of  conduct,''  "  the 
social  individual/'  etc. 

Cultural  Education.  —  Finally,  we  can  recognize  in  the 
completed  individual,  and  as  the  actual  or  potential  product 
of  educational  agencies  like  the  school,  a  variety  of  forms  of 
culture  which  ultimately  merge  in  the  rounded,  cultivated 
man  or  woman.  These  may  be  described,  on  the  one  hand, 
as  powers  of  execution  or  expression.  For  example,  we 
describe  an  individual  as  capable  of  speaking  correct  English, 
conversing  fluently  in  a  foreign  tongue,  reading  the  literature 
of  a  foreign  language,  as  being  able  to  paint,  to  play  music, 
or  to  write  poetry.  But  on  the  other  hand  the  larger  part 
of  such  cultural  attainments  are  properly  to  be  described 
mainly  in  terms  of  appreciation,  —  the  capacity  for  making 
wise  and  social  choices  for  utilization  or  enjoyment.  With 
reference  to  such  fields  as  music,  art,  literature,  science,  his- 
tory, economic  production  of  all  sorts,  and  skilled  service  gen- 
erally, we  can  recognize  in  the  cultivated  individual  well-de- 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Rducation     765 

vclopcd  powers  of  choice.  The  qualities  found  in  all  of  these 
specific  products  and  forms  of  service  are  themselves  deter- 
mined ultimately  by  the  educated  powers  of  consumers.  A 
conscious  and  deliberate  plan  of  liberal  education  can  produce 
better  capacities  of  appreciation  than  are  now  found.  Such 
powers  of  appreciation  will  be  discovered  to  be  consistent  with 
the  more  rapid  progress  of  culture  and  civilization. 

How  far  the  existing  secondary  school  subjects  can  be  ad- 
justed to  the  requirements  of  cultural  education  as  here  defined 
is  now  problematical.  In  the  case  of  many  of  them  it  may 
indeed  be  doubted  whether  any  extensive  development  in  this 
direction  is  possible.  We  have,  for  example,  no  sufficient 
evidence  that  a  profound,  varied,  and  lasting  appreciation  of 
literature  generally  results  from  a  study  of  literature  as  now 
carried  on  in  high  schools.  Science  teaching  as  at  present 
organized  is  open  to  criticism  on  the  ground  that,  whatever 
else  it  produces,  it  does  not  result  in  enduring  satisfactions 
based  upon  the  attainment  of  scientific  knowledge,  nor  in 
the  abiding  scientific  interests  which  constitute  the  cultural 
ends  that  should  be  reached  in  a  true  educational  process.  It 
is  also  obvious  that  secondary  school  education  to-day  fails 
to  realize  ends  of  true  culture  in  such  fields  as  the  fine  arts 
and  music. 

In  defining  a  variety  of  fairly  concrete  cultural  ends,  each 
one  of  which  may  be  made  a  definite  educational  objective, 
we  certainly  should  greatly  increase  the  possibilities  of  the 
secondary  school  as  an  agency  of  genuine  liberal  education. 
This  would  give  opportunity  for  the  more  satisfactory  con- 
sideration and  use  of  native  interests  and  inclinations  than  is 
possible  under  existing  conditions  in  secondary  education. 
Culture,  it  is  clear,  being  an  individual  possession,  may  well 
vary  greatly  in  character  and  actual  content  as  between  in- 
dividual and  individual.  One  person  may  have  highly  de- 
veloped powers  of  appreciation  of  music  and  other  forms  of 
art,  and  nevertheless  remain  relatively  uncultivated  in  such 


766  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

fields  as  science  and  history.  Another  individual  will  find 
his  satisfactions  and  the  enrichment  of  his  leisure  in  the  latter 
fields.  A  third  may  have  his  powers  of  appreciation  developed 
in  the  direction  of  the  more  material  economic  products  of 
modern  life,  and  may  by  his  standards  of  appreciation  con- 
tribute his  share  to  the  general  elevation  of  these  fields  of 
production. 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  in  certain  departments  of  common 
or  general  utilization,  the  secondary  school  will  do  all  that  it 
can  to  promote  standards  for  all  alike.  For  example,  we  all 
utilize,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  the  products  of  the  modern 
press,  such  as  the  newspaper,  the  magazine,  and  current 
books.  The  secondary  school  can  do  a  large  service  for 
culture,  by  deliberately  improving  standards  of  taste  within 
these  fields,  employing  for  this  educational  purpose  the  actual 
products  themselves,  and  holding  definite  standards  of  desir- 
able quality  before  the  pupils. 

Culture  Primarily  Based  on  Contemporary  Life.  —  It  should 
be  obvious  that  a  program  of  cultural  education  of  the  sort 
here  suggested,  like  the  other  programs  referred  to  above, 
must  generally  have  its  foundations  and  primary  sources  in 
contemporary  life.  Only  upon  the  foundations  of  a  strong 
and  varied  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  contemporary 
situations  and  tendencies,  with  a  deliberate  forecasting  of 
the  possible  developments  of  these  in  the  future,  will  the 
teacher  and  pupil  be  able  finally  to  reach  back  into  the  his- 
toric world.  It  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  with  suitable 
pedagogical  programs  devised  for  this  purpose,  there  will  be 
a  constant  tendency  for  exceptional  minds  to  become  keenly 
interested  in  the  historical  antecedents  of  the  particular  fields 
which  are  being  studied  at  any  one  time.  It  is  natural  and 
desirable  that  all  that  material  which  we  call  the  historical, 
as  well  as  that  which  deals  with  the  more  recondite  and  more 
remote  phases  of  any  subject  under  consideration,  should 
appeal  to  individuals  of  exceptional  native  powers.  But  it 


77/6'  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     767 

is  not  wise  or  profitable  to  impose  upon  all  individuals  alike 
the  tasks  and  goals  of  learning  that  really  appeal  to  exceptional 
individuals  only. 

Personal  Culture  and  Achievement.  —  Under  the  head  of 
personal  culture  as  indicated  above  are  to  be  included  those 
powers  of  accomplishment  or  achievement,  or  "doing,"  which 
are  of  a  cultural,  rather  than  of  a  vocational,  nature.  Under 
this  head  may  be  included  the  mastery  of  a  foreign  language 
as  a  tool  of  appreciation.  Similarly,  a  mastery  of  certain  of 
the  technical  processes  of  science,  mathematics,  history,  or 
art,  when  such  mastery  is  sought  primarily  with  a  view  to 
enhancing  the  powers  of  appreciation  or  execution  in  these 
fields,  would  be  considered  cultural  education.  A  student 
might  give  effort  to  the  mastery  of  gardening  or  of  music  or 
drawing,  for  cultural  purposes,  that  is,  non-vocational  ap- 
preciation, which  would  belong  properly  in  this  field. 

Obviously,  prior  to  the  period  of  the  beginning  of  secondary 
education,  the  study  of  the  mother  tongue,  of  arithmetic,  and 
of  elemental  processes  in  drawing,  as  these  constitute  a  part 
of  the  program  of  elementary  education,  might  also  be  included 
under  this  head. 

REORGANIZATION  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 
NECESSITATED  BY  FOREGOING  ANALYSIS. —  The  fore- 
going attempt  to  suggest  beginnings  in  defining  valid  educa- 
tional aims,  if  carried  to  the  point  of  producing  definite  results, 
would  probably  involve  some  fundamental  alterations  in  the 
educational  means  and  methods  now  employed.  Some  of  the 
present  traditional  studies  of  the  secondary  schools,  represent- 
ing, as  they  do,  organized  bodies  of  knowledge,  or  definite 
forms  of  skill  to  be  acquired  by  painstaking  effort,  would  sink 
into  the 'background  as  to  importance.  In  their  place  would 
appear  wholly  new  subjects,  with  corresponding  demands  for 
new  types  of  method,  varied  according  to  the  ends  held  in  view 
and  according  to  the  degree  of  attainment  expected  in  any 
given  direction.  Only  a  few  illustrations  of  these  possible 


768  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

changes  can  be  suggested  here.  It  should  be  apparent  that, 
having  once  denned  in  a  clear-cut  way  the  social  utilities  that 
are  to  be  made  the  ends  of  educational  effort,  the  develop- 
ment of  appropriate  means  and  methods  of  attaining  them 
would  not  be  difficult.  This  would  be  accomplished  partly 
through  proper  application  of  experiments  in  educational 
method.  Justifying  this  approach,  we  have  the  analogies  of 
medicine,  engineering,  agriculture,  and  mechanical  communi- 
cation. In  these  fields  it  is  evident  that  whenever  the  ends 
of  attainment  have  been  somewhat  clearly  defined,  many 
persons  are  found  capable  of  attacking  the  problems  of  the 
means  and  methods  of  realizing  such  ends. 

In  Physical  Education.  —  When,  for  example,  a  particular 
form  of  physical  development  or  health  becomes  denned  as 
something  to  be  attained  by  educational  means,  many  de- 
vices for  meeting  it  soon  appear.  If  the  development  or 
cultivation  of  bodily  organs  is  made  an  end,  gymnastic  prac- 
tices result.  If  it  is  found  that  the  promotion  of  natural  ex- 
ercises and  advanced  forms  of  play  can  best  be  accomplished 
by  team  activity,  team  games  and  athletics  are  the  outcome. 
If  the  school  perceives  that  it  is  its  duty  to  fix  in  the  pupil 
habits  of  oral  hygiene,  definitive  processes  of  information- 
giving  and  inspection  of  actual  practice  may  follow  in  such 
a  way  that  within  a  comparatively  short  time  appropriate 
habits  are  fixed.  If  the  school  finds  justification  for  giving 
definite  instruction  as  to  hygienic  precautions  to  be  taken 
against  bacterial  infection  of  various  sorts,  such  instruction 
becomes  easily  possible  by  means  of  lectures,  printed  matter, 
pictures,  practices  of  disinfection,  etc. 

The  significant  fact  to  be  noticed  is  that  we  multiply  means 
and  methods  in  any  direction  as  soon  as  definite  needs  and 
purposes  are  defined.  Practices  are  adapted  to  the  results 
sought ;  for  one  purpose,  perhaps,  we  employ  a  lecturer ;  for 
another,  a  field  exercise.  In  one  case  we  may  employ  the 
method  of  class  compulsion ;  in  others,  the  method  of  individ- 


T/LC  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     769 

ual  interview  and  personal  contact.  For  some  purposes  of 
instruction,  a  thousand  pupils  may  be  assembled  and  addressed 
by  a  competent  leader ;  while  in  other  cases  individual  con- 
ference only  will  achieve  the  results  desired.  Books  and  labora- 
tory practice  may  be  used  for  some  purposes,  while  for  others 
only  directed  practices  in  the  field  will  be  valuable. 

In  Vocational  Education.  —  Similarly,  in  the  field  of  voca- 
tional education,  when  we  have  once  defined  our  objectives, 
we  find  ourselves  rapidly  moving  towards  definite  forms  of 
practice,  which  will  differ  widely  from  the  historic  school 
practices  of  academic  education  because  of  difference  of 
fundamental  aim.  The  modern  vocational  school  presents 
endless  characteristics  differentiating  it  from  secondary 
"  schools  "  as  we  have  known  them.  The  greatest  difficulty 
encountered  in  the  development  of  vocational  education  is, 
indeed,  due  to  the  attempt  to  utilize  the  means  and  methods 
of  academic  instruction  as  these  have  become  fixed  in  custom. 
But  gradually,  as  definite  objectives  for  vocational  education 
become  formulated,  we  are  now  discarding  historic  practices, 
and  for  each  particular  type  of  vocational  education  we  are 
developing  appropriate  ways  and  means,  of  which  the  most 
dominant  characteristic,  perhaps,  is  that  the  learner  shall 
actually  participate  in  the  elementary  stages  of  the  practice 
of  the  calling  into  which  he  purposes  to  enter. 

In  a  good  school  for  the  training  of  machinists  to-day,  shop 
conditions  are  faithfully  reproduced ;  technical  instruction  is 
closely  related  to  practical  experience ;  the  shop  seeks  to  pro- 
duce a  marketable  product ;  the  school  day  and  school  year 
approximate  those  of  the  industry  itself ;  and,  to  some  extent, 
pupils  differentiate  into  those  exercising  specialized  operative 
functions  and  those  exercising  foremanship  functions  in  the 
industry. 

Modern  farm  schools,  at  their  best,  require  of  their  pupils 
long  and  painstaking  application  to  the  processes  of  actual 
tillage,  each  pupil  endeavoring  to  reproduce,  as  far  as  prac- 
30 


770  Principles  of  ^Secondary  Education 

ticable,  the  economic  cycle  of  operations  appropriate  to 
agriculture. 

Similarly,  wherever  practicable,  vocational  schools  seek  to 
share  with  actual  economic  agencies  the  responsibility  for  the 
full  vocational  education  of  the  pupil.  Undoubtedly,  in 
time  a  system  will  be  devised  whereby  the  pupil  will  remain 
under  the  general  direction  of  the  school  during  the  earlier 
stages  of  learning,  his  services  being  loaned  or  hired  out  from 
time  to  time  to  the  industry  itself,  as  this  proves  expedient 
or  necessary,  in  the  process  of  vocational  training. 

In  Social  Education.  —  Within  the  field  of  social  education 
it  is  a.lso  easily  apparent  that  means  and  methods  of  instruc- 
tion must  vary  largely  according  to  the  specific  social  utili- 
ties held  in  view.  For  example,  it  is  a  large  function  of  such 
education  to  produce  moral  or  social  ideals.  Ideals  are  to 
be  produced  by  educational  influences  that  are  far  removed, 
in  their  essential  characteristics,  from  the  drill  methods 
characteristic  of  historic  academic  education.  With  reference 
to  many  forms  of  social  action,  the  school  seeks  to  give  com- 
prehension, perspective,  insight;  but  it  does  so,  as  far  as 
possible,  upon  the  basis  of  actual  experience.  The  attainment 
of  this  experience,  of  course,  will  be  largely  along  lines  that 
are  at  present  quite  foreign  to  secondary  school  practice. 
Such  experience  may  be  obtained  in  various  forms  of  service, 
in  activities  such  as  those  found  in  the  Boy  Scout  movement, 
in  young  people's  clubs,  and  in  various  other  forms  of  modern 
social  life. 

The  school  social  group  will  more  and  more  become  a  self- 
governing  body ;  in  other  words,  more  self-consciously  social 
and  self-controlled.  Books,  lectures,  library  practice,  and 
participation  in  social  activities  will  all  have  a  place  in  social 
education  at  its  best ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  at  the  present 
time  we  possess  few  formulas  for  this  purpose. 

In  Cultural  Education.  —  The  accepted  methods  of  second- 
ary school  instruction  seem  best  adapted  perhaps  to  the 


The' Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     771 

production  of  what  is  here  called  "  personal  culture."  Never- 
theless, the  changes  that  must  take  place  even  in  this  field, 
before  the  specific  ends  suggested  above  can  be  effectively 
utilized,  may  be  described  as  almost  revolutionary.  These 
will  be  especially  conspicuous  in  the  production  of  those  forms 
of  culture  which  are  characterized  chiefly  by  appreciation  and 
the  power  of  choice,  rather  than  by  specific  powers  of  intellec- 
tual execution.  We  know  little  as  yet  about  the  psychological 
principles  involved  in  producing  fine  appreciation ;  but  what 
we  do  know  convinces  us  that  it  must  come,. in  a  large  measure, 
as  a  result  of  social  activity  built  on  tastes  and  interests  already 
in  evidence  and  capable  of  extended  definition  and  develop- 
ment. If  specific  ends  of  culture  are  set  before  educators, 
it  may  not  be  so  difficult  to  devise  methods  of  realizing  such 
ends.  For  example,  suppose  we  define,  as  one  aim  of  cultural 
education,  the  development  of  a  discriminating  appreciation 
of  good  music.  The  definition  of  this  as  an  end  carries  with 
it  suggestions  as  to  how  such  results  can  be  achieved.  Let  us 
again  define,  as  an  aim,  the  development  of  a  generous  and 
sympathetic  appreciation  of  the  contributions  of  the  modern 
doctrine  of  evolution  to  contemporary  thought.  Here,  again, 
the  suggestion  of  the  end  carries  with  it  ideas  of  lectures,  of 
skillfully  directed  reading,  and  the  like,  the  outcome  of  which 
would  be  the  same  as  that  produced  in  a  good  college  or  ex- 
tension course  of  lectures  for  this  purpose. 

Let  us  again  define,  as  an  aim  of  secondary  education  in  this 
field,  a  discriminating  and  helpful  attitude  toward  modern 
magazine  literature.  Many  examples  of  this  literature  would 
obviously  be  brought  into  a  class  organized  for  this  purpose. 
A  discriminating  pedagogy  would  learn  how,  by  questioning, 
by  appealing  to  native  and  already  established  tastes,  gradually 
to  raise  the  student's  standards  in  this  field. 

In  these  and  hundreds  of  other  directions  it  seems  to  be 
possible,  having  once  defined  valid  educational  aims,  to  devise 
methods  by  which  these  aims  can  be  realized. 


772  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

Effect  on  the  Traditional  Subjects.  —  It  has  been  assumed 
that  it  is  not  within  the  province  of  the  present  chapter  to  dis- 
cuss the  reorganization  of  secondary  education  as  that  will  be 
affected  by  changes  now  taking  place,  or  probably  soon  to  take 
place,  within  the  field  of  the  content  and  method  of  the  his- 
toric subjects  of  study  in  secondary  schools.  The  preceding 
chapters,  together  with  the  large  amount  of  educational  litera- 
ture now  available  in  this  field  and  to  which  references  have 
already  been  given,  render  such  discussion  unnecessary. 

It  is  the  conviction  of  the  writer  that  changes  and  readjust- 
ments made  within  the  historic  subjects  can  be  effective  and 
of  permanent  value  only  when  the  teachers  of  these  subjects 
already  possess  quite  clearly  defined  objectives  which  conform 
to  the  requirements  of  a  scientific  program  of  education.  We 
may,  for  example,  readily  assume  that  in  the  field  of  so-called 
English  composition  the  aims  now  commonly  accepted  are 
sufficiently  definite,  scientific,  and  based  upon  a  sound  scheme 
of  social  values,  so  that  readjustments  within  that  field,  both 
as  to  scope  and  as  to  method,  will  finally  result  in  making  the 
subject  what  it  should  be  educationally.  It  is  possible,  also, 
that  in  the  case  of  the  modern  languages  it  will  be  practicable 
to  shape  definite  programs,  both  of  content  and  of  method,  on 
the  basis  of  aims  already  in  part  defined.  In  other  words, 
it  may  be  that  the  scientific  aims  which  should  ultimately 
control  in  the  teaching  of  French  and  German,  for  example, 
are  even  now  sufficiently  possible  of  definition  to  make  re- 
adjustments of  content  and  method  purposeful  and  effective. 

In  a  few  other  departments  of  secondary  education,  such 
as  the  biological  sciences  and  the  practical  arts  (manual 
training,  agriculture,  home  economics,  etc.),  it  is  possible  that 
aims  are  now  in  process  of  being  clarified  to  an  extent  which 
will  enable  more  scientific  and  effective  programs,  based  upon 
genuine  social  utilities,  to  be  developed  within  the  next  few 
years. 

In  other  subjects,  however,  such  as  mathematics,  history, 


The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education     773 

the  classical  languages,  and  such  sciences  as  physics  and 
chemistry,  it  is  the  conviction  of  the  writer  that  no  readjust- 
ments within  the  field  of  either  content  or  method  will  give 
satisfactory  results  until  such  time  as  valid  aims  for  these 
subjects  shall  have  been  defined,  examined,  and  carefully 
tested.  An  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  case  of 
Latin.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  during  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  the  methods  of  teaching  this  subject  have  enor- 
mously improved,  but  notwithstanding  this  fact  the  subject 
itself  does  not  to-day  "  function  "  educationally  to  any  better 
advantage  than  in  former  times.  The  difficulty  now  lies  not 
so  much  in  the  methods  of  teaching  Latin  as  in  the  more 
fundamental  problem  as  to  the  purposes  of  this  study  in  a 
scientific  scheme  of  secondary  education. 

Administrative  Changes  Necessitated.  —  In  this  chapter, 
also,  there  has  been  a  deliberate  omission  of  any  discussion  of 
administrative  changes  that  must  necessarily  accompany  the 
reorganization  of  secondary  education.  An  adequate  treat- 
ment of  possible  administrative  changes  can  be  based  only 
upon  accepted  theories  as  to  the  ultimate  purposes,  means,  and 
methods  of  secondary  education.  Such  possible  changes  have 
already  been  suggested  in  Chapter  V. 

It  is  still  uncertain,  for  example,  whether  vocational  educa- 
tion can  be  effectively  carried  on  through  and  by  the  same 
administrative  agencies  that  control  liberal,  or  general,  edu- 
cation. The  experience  of  several  European  countries  has 
been  decidedly  in  the  direction  of  providing  separate  adminis- 
trative agencies  for  vocational  education.  The  question  is 
still  under  debate  in  American  states,  with  the  present  tendency 
strongly  in  the  direction  of  differentiating  vocational  educa- 
tion as  simply  one  phase  of  all  the  education  under  public 
educational  authorities.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  however, 
whether  this  will  prove  to  be  the  most  effective  means,  once 
clearly  defined  aims  for  vocational  education  are  established 
and  accepted. 


774  Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

It  is  clear,  also,  that  in  the  field  of  more  adequate  training 
for  citizenship,  and  perhaps  in  physical  education,  the  require- 
ments of  the  future  will  necessitate  extensive  changes  in  the 
internal  administration  of  schools.  This,  however,  is  a  subject 
which  is  too  problematical  to  be  capable  of  adequate  discus- 
sion at  the  present  time. 

THE  FINAL  WORD  IS  THIS.— In' America,  as  in  other 
civilized  countries,  society  is  in  process  of  developing  a  sound 
and  scientific  social  economy.  This  economy  will  necessarily 
be  based  upon  a  more  or  less  scientific  scheme  of  social  values, 
thoroughly  analyzed.  It  will  be  the  province  of  education 
to  minister  to  a  realization  of  these  values  by  training  boys  and 
girls  in  directions  quite  definite  and  demonstrably  worth  while. 
The  content,  the  method,  and  the  administrative  agencies 
suitable  to  such  education  must  be  worked  out  as  instrumen- 
talities, and  must  be  shaped  and  changed  according  to  the 
requirements  of  the  particular  aims  held  in  view.  Until 
educators  learn  to  think  of  the  final  purposes  of  education  in 
terms  other  than  mastery  of  so  much  knowledge  or  training 
in  particular  forms  of  skill,  progress  will  necessarily  be  slow. 
When,  however,  educators  cease  to  think  of  educational  ends 
in  terms  of  subjects  and  proceed  to  define  their  aims  in  terms 
of  an  ascertained  scheme  of  values  based  upon  a  scientific 
social  economy,  then  rapid  reorganization  of  means  and 
methods  will  undoubtedly  take  place. 

NOTE.  —  The  list  of  topical  questions  and  the  bibliography  appended  to  each 
of  the  preceding  chapters  of  this  volume  all  relate  more  or  less  directly  to  the 
subject  matter  of  this  concluding  chapter. 


INDEX 


Abilities  of  students,  as  determining 
secondary  education,  10,  13. 

Academy,  44 ;  catered  to  students'  inter- 
ests, n. 

American :  origin  and  development,  54- 
57 ;  developed  into  high  school,  63 ; 
difference  from  high  school,  67 ;  de- 
cline of,  66. 

English  :  characteristics  of,  46-47.  See 
also  Realschule. 

Acceleration  and  retardation,  248-249. 

Accrediting  of  high  schools,  161,  16,5-17?; 
Eastern  system,  170-172;  Western 
system,  163-169.  See  also  Adminis- 
tration ;  College  Entrance  Examina- 
tion Board  Examinations. 

Addams,  Jane  C.,  quoted  on  narrow  in- 
fluence of  high  school  teachers,  350; 
on  recreation,  334. 

Administration,  in  England,  132-134,  135; 
in  France,  74-101  (outlined,  pp.  xii, 
xiii) ;  in  Germany,  102-105,  115-117. 
In  United  States  :  changes  now  in  prog- 
ress, 747  ;  changes  necessitated  by 
formulation  of  new  aims  and  methods, 
773  ;  high  school  systems,  64-68,  146- 
172  (outlined,  p.  xv) ;  organization  of 
high  school,  174  214  (outlined,  pp. 
xiv— xvi) ;  socialization  of,  736-737. 
Sec  also  Accrediting  of  high  schools; 
Age  of  beginning  secondary  education  ; 
Budget,  school ;  Education  Act  of  1899 ; 
Endowed  -Schools  Act;  Examinations; 
I  ligh  Schools  ;  Hygiene,  School ;  Inspec- 
tion of  high  schools ;  Number  of 
schools  ;  Principal  of  high  school ;  Re- 
organization of  secondary  education  ; 
Salaries;  School  population;  Teach- 
ers, preparation  of ;  Text-books;  Tui- 
tion ;  Types  of  schools. 

Adolescence,  biological  definition,  246; 
importance  in  education  first  em- 
phasized by  Rousseau,  o;  intellectual 
growth  during,  207-  2<jS ;  mental 
pathology  of,  21)2-208;  method  of 
studying,  257,  note;  physical  char- 


acteristics, 248-257 ;  psychological 
phenomena  of,  257-272,  321 ;  psy- 
chology and  hygiene  of,  234,  312; 
religious  and  moral  aspects,  285-292 ; 
275,  note;  social  aspects,  272-285. 

Advisor    system     in    high    schools,    194. 

Aesthetic  side  of  vernacular  teaching,  369. 

Age,  of  beginning  secondary  education  in 
America  and  in  Europe,  9;  as  deter- 
mining ideals,  289-290;  physiological, 
psychological,  and  "  pedagogical,"  248 ; 
physiological,  in  relation  to  success  in 
high  school,  249;  physiological  and 
psychological,  delimiting  secondary 
education,  9,  10,  13. 

Agencies  contributing  to  education,  756- 
758. 

Agregation,  89,  100. 

Agricultural  education,  history  of  develop- 
ment, 671-673  ;  present  problem,  678— 
679 ;  types  of  schools,  673-678.  See 
also  Vocational  education. 

Agricultural  high  schools,  seldom  realize 
vocational  ends,  749,  750. 

Agriculture,  as  an  element  of  cultural 
education,  767;  position  in  the  cur- 
riculum, 476.  See  also  Agricultural 
education. 

Aim,  relation  to  content  and  method,  203  ; 
of  the  academies,  55  ;  of  commercial 
education,  663;  of  Greek  schools,  17, 
23 ;  of  industrial  education,  642 ;  of 
realistic  education,  45  ;  of  the  Renais- 
sance-Reformation schools,  38  ;  of  sec- 
ondary education  as  it  is,  748,  749; 
of  secondary  education  as  it  is  often 
claimed  to  be,  749 ;  of  the  various 
subjects:  algebra,  532;  art.  582; 
athletics,  709  ;  biology,  752,  753  ;  civics, 
573:  geometry,  537;  Greek,  400-407; 
household  arts,  610;  hygiene,  685; 
Latin.  388;  literature.  358;  manual 
training,  658 ;  mathematics,  530 ; 
modern  language  study,  424;  music, 
003;  physical  education,  699;  natural 
sciences,  446-449. 


776 


Index 


Aims,  clearer  definition  now  being  sought, 
747  ;  formulated,  suggest  methods  of 
attainment,  768,  768-769;  inadequate 
character  of  present,  745  ;  inadequate, 
the  cause  of  much  futility  in  education, 
750;  more  scientific  analysis  of,  de- 
manded, 746. 

Algebra,  530;  definition,  531-532;  in 
grammar  grades,  541-544 ;  in  second- 
ary schools,  534-536;  in  European 
schools,  536;  reasons  for  studying, 
532-534.  See  also  Geometry ;  Mathe- 
matics. 

Attgemeine  Landrecht,  123. 

Altruism,  in  adolescence,  275. 

Angell,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Approbation,  love  of,  in  adolescence,  274- 
275- 

Argument,  as  a  form  of  composition,  374. 

Aristotle,  quoted  on  the  distinction  be- 
tween elementary  and  secondary  edu- 
cation, 20. 

Arnold  of  Rugby,  125;  and  the  classics, 
344 ;  and  religion  in  education,  349 ; 
and  sources  of  energy,  319,  323,  347. 

Arrested  development  during  adolescence, 
292-294. 

Art,  adolescent  interest  in,  308 ;  as  an  ele- 
ment of  cultural  education,  767 ; 
gallery,  use  of  school  as,  740;  impor- 
tance in  education,  578,  580;  methods 
of  teaching,  582—587 ;  in  education, 
principles  underlying,  570-582. 

Arteries,  growth  during  adolescence, 
254- 

Arts,  classification  of,  578 ;  design  as  relat- 
ing fine  to  practical  arts,  578-594; 
distinction  between  fine  and  useful, 
579;  university  work  in,  originally 
given  in  secondary  schools,  72.  Sec 
also  Art ;  Fine  Arts ;  Household  Arts ; 
Music;  Vocational  education. 

Ascham,  43 ;  a  tutor,  46 ;  and  the  classics, 

344; 

Association,  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory 
Schools  of  Middle  States  and  Mary- 
land, 383 ;  of  Southern  Colleges  and 
Preparatory  Schools,  383. 

Astronomy,  in  high  schools,  475. 

Athletics,  in  American  schools,  720—729 ; 
contestants  w.  spectators,  711-716; 
control  of,  720-724,  725-727;  defini- 
tion, 713;  educational  values,  709- 
716,  727-729,  736;  in  English  public- 
schools,  128-129;  evils  of,  716—720; 


socialized,    739.    See    also    Hygiene; 
Physical  education. 

Auchmuty,  Richard  T.,  founder  of  New 
York  Trade  School,  649. 

Bacon,  mentioned,  50. 

Bagley,  W.  C.,  on  investigation  of  ado- 
lescent criminal  tendencies,  296;  as 
to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Bagster-Collins,  E.  W.,  contributor,  p.  ix, 
Modern  Languages,  424-443. 

Baker,  F.  T.,  contributor,  p.  viii,  Composi- 
tion, 373-379 ;  College  Entrance  Re- 
quirements, 383-384 ;  and  Krapp,  G. 
B.,  p.  vi,  English  Literature,  356- 
373- 

Baron  de  Hirsch  Trade  School,  649,  650. 

Basedow,  51. 

Bedford  Grammar  School,  131. 

Bell,  monitorial  scheme  in  America,  61—62. 

Bell,  Sanford,  on  adolescent  love,  264-266. 

Biographical  interest  in  literature,  366-367. 

Biology,  actual  vs.  true  aims,  752,  753; 
aims  now  being  clarified,  772;  in  the 
curriculum,  476  :  advantages,  486—488 ; 
correlation  of  botany,  zoology,  and 
physiology,  494-495 ;  method,  488— 
494 ;  subject  matter,  486.  See  also 
Natural  sciences. 

Bocher,  Professor,  definition  of  mathe- 
matics, 529. 

Bones,  growth  during  adolescence,  253 ; 
hygiene,  253. 

Botany,  see  Biology. 

Bourne,  H.  E.,  contributor,  p.  ix,  History, 
549-565. 

Boy  Scout  movement,  272,  760,  770. 

Bradford  Grammar  School,  131. 

Brain,  growth  during  adolescence,  257. 

Brinsley,  on  neglect  of  arithmetic,  40,  43. 

Brooks,  on  causes  of  school  mortality,  271. 

Budget,  English  school,  136;  French,  93- 
94,  100.  See  also  Administration. 

Canning  Club  work,  634. 

Censor  of  studies,  a  discipline  master,  88. 

Centennial  Exhibition,  and  manual  train- 
ing, 66 1. 

Central  High  School  of  Philadelphia  and 
commercial  education,  667. 

"Central  Schools"  of  France,  73. 

"Certificate  of  secondary  studies,"  in 
girls'  lycec,  99. 

Certification  of  high  schools,  see  Accredit- 
ing. 


Index 


777 


Character  building,  as  aim  of  education, 
749- 

Charter-house,  124. 

Chemistry,  actual  vs.  true  aims,  752,  753; 
in  the  curriculum,  475,  476 :  beginning 
point, 509-5 1 2  ;  method,  508-509,  513- 
515,  5'6;  practical  applications,  517- 
519;  subject  matter,  51.5,  515-516; 
textbooks,  how  to  use,  512-513.  See 
also  Natural  sciences. 

Church,  its  assumption  of  school  control, 
30-31  ;  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
760,  762. 

Cicero,  quoted,  on  oratory,  26. 

Circulation,  disturbances  during  adoles- 
cence, 255. 

Citizenship,  good,  as  an  end  of  education, 
746. 

Civics,  definition,  565 ;  introduction  into 
schools,  565-5(17  ;  methods  of  teach- 
ing, 560-572 ;  position  in  curriculum 
567-569,  572;  purpose  in  teaching, 
573;  socialized  methods,  736,  741; 
textbooks,  570,  573.  5ft-  also  Econom- 
ics ;  History. 

Civil  polity,  as  a  part  of  civics,  565. 

Class  conference  vs.  recitation,  460. 

Class  distinction,  conferred  by  secondary 
education,  6,  7. 

Classics,  in  English  "public''  schools,  125. 

Claxton,  Commissioner,  suggestions  for 
greater  efficiency  of  high  schools,  201. 

Clergy,  the  sole  profession  in  Middle  Ages, 
5,  30. 

Club,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758,  762. 

Coeducation,  in  relation  to  adolescent  de- 
velopment, 308-310;  nonexistent  in 
Germany,  115. 

College,  de  Guyenne,  curriculum,  42  ; 
d'Harcourt,  oldest  secondary  school, 
72 ;  de  la  Rive,  curriculum,  41-42. 

College,  developed  from  academy,  57; 
dominance  of,  748  ;  French  communal, 
75>  95  I  relation  to  high  school,  188  ; 
Entrance  Certificate  Board,  of  New 
England,  170-172;  Entrance  Exami- 
nation Board,  163,  383,  384,  433-434, 
473.  544  ;  effects  on  high  school  science- 
teaching,  474-475  ;  entrance  require- 
ments, early,  58;  in  English,  382-384  ; 
in  mathematics,  544-546 ;  in  history, 
early,  553  ;  in  modern  languages,  433  ; 
in  natural  sciences,  473-475. 

Colvin,  S.  S.,  (moled  on  transfer  of  train- 
ing, 303-304- 


Comenius,  51. 

Commerce,  High  School  of,  New  York  City, 
667  ;  course  of  study,  668-670. 

Commercial  education,  in  public  high 
schools,  664-670;  origin  and  need  of, 
663-664 ;  results,  670 ;  socialized 
methods,  735-736;  teachers,  671. 
See  also  Types  of  schools;  Vocational 
education. 

Commercial  high  schools,  seldom  realize 
vocational  ends,  749,  750. 

Commission  of  Accrediled  Schools,  pur- 
poses, 167;  recommendations,  168; 
Southern,  169. 

Committee,  on  college   entrance    require- 
ments, 473-474;    recommendations  in 
science,  476 ;    of  Eifteen,  civics,  566 ; 
of  Five,  civics,  568,  571;    of  Seven: 
civics,  566,  571,  history,  557. 
of  Ten..:  appointed,  76;  economics,  573  ; 
kngush,      383 ;       history,      554-555 ; 
same  education  for  all  students,  194; 
science  teaching,  473. 
of  Twelve,  433,  445. 

Composition,  aim  in  language,  painting, 
sculpture,  373;  aims  Cin  language) 
already  well  defined,  772;  definition, 
373  ;  distinguished  from  rhetoric,  373  ; 
four  fundamental  forms,  373-3/4 ; 
teaching  of,  374-379.  Sec  also  Litera- 
ture ;  Vernacular. 

Concordat,  abrogation  of,  73. 

Conduct,  ethical  standards  of,  as  result  of 
education,  764. 

Content  of  subject,  to  be  determined  by 
purpose  in  teaching  it,  203-204;  from 
social  viewpoint,  734. 

Control  of  schools  during  the  Renaissance- 
Reformation  period,  38,  39. 

Cooper  Union,  of  New  York  City,  647. 

Cooperation  between  school  and  home, 
335  ;  between  school  and  industries, 
627,  652-654,  762,  770. 

Coover,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Corderius,  method,  43. 

Correspondence  schools,  654. 

Crampton,  on  relation  of  physiological  age 
to  success  in  high  school,  249. 

Criminality  during  adolescence,  294-297. 

Crosswell,  James  G.,  contributor,  p.  viii, 
The  Private  Secondary  School,  233- 
243- 

Cubberley,  E.  P..  contributor,  p.  vii.  State 
Systems  of  High  Schools,  146-140  ; 
Maintenance  and  Support,  154-1(11. 


778 


Index 


Cultural  education,  analysis  of  aims,  765- 
767 ;  definition,  759,  764-766 ;  reor- 
ganization based  on  new  aims,  770- 
771. 

Culture,  as  the  aim  of  education,  746,  749. 

Curriculum,  the  academies,  57-60;  E. 
Armston's  school  for  girls,  59;  place 
of  design  in  :  Europe,  593-594,  United 
States,  593 ;  English  public  schools, 
33,  34;  failure  to  prepare  for  parent- 
hood, 337-338;  of  French  secondary 
schools,  78-80,  96  ;  German  secondary 
schools,  49-50,  108,  109,  no— in,  113. 
High  school :  changes  and  characteristics, 
214-216;  early  development,  67-68; 
factors  in  determining,  177;  rural, 
150-151;  similar  in  all  high  schools, 
147-148  ;  socialized,  734. 
Latin  grammar  schools,  Renaissance- 
Reformation  period,  40 ;  in  America, 
53;  Roman  grammar  school,  27; 
service  of  the  academy  to,  45 ;  social 
viewpoint,  734~735  ;  vocational  idea, 
333.  See  also  Elective  system;  Pro- 
gram of  studies  ;  and  Biology  ;  Chem- 
istry, etc. 

Cygnaeus,  Otto,  pioneer  in  manual  train- 
ing, 660. 

Dante,  quoted,  on  exposition,  35. 

Davis,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Declamation,  the  teaching  of,  379. 

Degrees,  Erench,  agregalion,  89 ;  bacca- 
laureate, 85-87 ;  substitutes  for,  in 
the  case  of  girls,  99. 

Delsarte  system  of  exercises,  700. 

Dementia preecox,  292. 

Democratic  function  of  secondary  school, 
9,  13.  See  also  Universal  education. 

Denominational  schools,  241. 

Description,  as  a  form  of  composition,  373- 
374- 

Design,  place  in  education,  592-594 ;  in 
fine  arts,  589-592  ;  the  link  between 
fine  and  useful  arts,  587-588;  in  prac- 
tical arts,  588-589,  590-591.  Sec  also 
Art;  Arts;  Fine  arts;  Industrial 
education  ;  Manual  training. 

Development,  arrested  during  adolescence, 
292-294. 

Dewey,  John,  contributor,  p.  ix,  Art  in 
Education,  578-582  ;  quoted  on  con- 
duct, 315;  on  cultivation  of  will,  32(1, 
note;  on  means  of  gaining  power. 
313-314;  on  media  of  training  in 


School,  338;  on  the  teaching  of  his- 
tory, 205-206 ;  and  the  University 
Elementary  School  of  Chicago,  660. 

Direct  method  of  language  teaching,  see 
Oral  method. 

Discipline,  dependent  on  understanding  of 
adolescence,  188;  relation  to  public 
sentiment  of  school,  189.  See  also 
Formal  discipline ;  Self-government. 

Diversification,  of  secondary  schools,  in 
Europe,  14  ;  needed  in  America,  15  ;  of 
educational  opportunities,  745. 

Dogmas,  educational,  now  giving  way,  746. 

Double  periods,  180. 

Dow,  A.  VV.,  contributor,  p.  ix,  Methods  of 
Teaching  Art ;  Design,  582-594. 

Drexel  Institute,  Philadelphia,  655. 

Dulwich,  day  school,  131. 

East  India  School,  51. 

Ebert,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  303,  304. 

Ecule  Polylcchnique,  47,9. 

Ecoles  pratiques,  673-674. 

Econome,  bursar,  88. 

Economics,  definition,  573 ;  introduction 
into  the  schools,  573,  574;  methods, 
574;  textbooks,  574.  See  also  His- 
tory ;  Civics. 

Eddy,  W.  H.,  on  teaching  of  sex  hygiene, 
270. 

Edclschulen,  44. 

Education,  causes  of  present  multiplied 
demands  upon,  745  ;  its  agencies  in  de- 
veloping the  individual,  757.  See  also 
Agricultural  education ;  Commercial 
education;  Elementary  education; 
Industrial  education  :  Moral  education  ; 
Physical  education  ;  Primary  school ; 
Religious  education  ;  Secondary  edu- 
cation ;  Social  education  ;  Vocational 
education. 

Education  Act  of  1899,  England,  132-134. 
See  also  Administration. 

Efficiency,  attained  only  by  arousing  will, 
315;  demanded  by  society,  734-735; 
of  German  secondary  school  system, 
reason  for,  105 ;  of  high  school  deter- 
mined by  its  administration,  174-175; 
how  to  attain,  in  American  industries, 
647  ;  impossible  without,  valid  aims  in 
education,  750;  secondary  education 
must  be  a  training  in,  14,  15. 

Eighteenth-century  conception  of  second- 
ary education,  6,  7. 

Elective  system  in  high  schools,   220-226; 


Index 


779 


French,  German,  and  American  sys- 
tems compared,  114-115.  See  also 
Curriculum  ;  Program  of  studies. 

Elementary    education,    distinction     from 

secondary  education  : 
First  made  by  Greeks,  16;  origin  of  the 
practical  distinction,  16-19;  origin  of 
the  theoretical  distinction,  ig-2i. 
Factors  in  the  distinction :  badge  of  class 
distinction,  6,  7,  12,  13,  71-72,  77,  105- 
106,  130;  deference  to  student's  inter- 
ests and  abilities,  10,  n,  1,5  ;  method, 
3,  4,  12;  peculiar  subject  matter,  4, 
12;  preparation  for  profession,  5,  12; 
preparation  for  professional  training, 
6  ;  physiological  and  psychological  age, 
9,  10,  13,  246,  249-250,  298;  social 
selection,  7-9,  13,  123-124;  training, 
not  instruction,  3,  12. 
At  present :  a  complex  of  these  factors, 
11-14;  i'1  addition,  social  service  and 
personal  efficiency,  14,  15.  Srr  iilso 
Primary  school ;  Secondary  education. 

Elementary  school,  superseding  secondary 
school  in  fundamental  importance,  2. 

"Elementary  science"  courses,  475. 

Elocution,  as  a  separate  branch  of  English 
training,  381-382. 

Endowed  Schools  Act,  England,  125.  Sec 
also  Administration. 

Endowments  in  Middle  Ages,  31-33. 

Energy,  sources  of  mental,  318. 

England,  the  academics,  46-47,  49-50; 
Greek  in,  417-418;  history  in,  559- 
560;  modern  languages  in,  442-443; 
school  population,  140-141  ;  second- 
ary education  in,  71,  122-141  (out- 
lined, p.  xiii,  xiv). 

Englewood  High  School,  coeducation  but 
not  construction,  309. 

English,  ability  to  use,  as  aim  of  education, 
749- 

English  Classical  School,  the  first  American 
high  school,  61. 

Erasmus,  quoted,  43-44.  344. 

Ethical  ideals  of  adolescence,  291. 

Ethics,  as  part  of  civics,  565. 

Eton,  124;   program  of  studies.  127-128. 

Examinations,  French,  So.  90;  German. 
116;  Regents',  202:  teachers',  in  Ger- 
many, 104.  Sir  <;/.?()  Accrediting  of 
schools;  Administration;  College  En- 
trance  Examination  Hoard:  College 
entrance  requirements;  Inspection  of 
schools. 


Excursions,  school,    271-272;    for   science 

study,  467-470. 
Exposition,  as  a  form  of  composition,  373- 

374- 

Fall  River,  Mass.,  state-aided  textile 
school,  655. 

Farnsworth,  C.  II.,  contributor,  p.  ix, 
Music  Teaching  in  the  Schools,  595- 
604. 

Farrington,  Frederic  E.,  contributor,  p.  vii, 
European  Systems  of  Secondary 
Schools,  71-140. 

Fees,  school,  see  Tuition  fees. 

Fellenberg,  51  ;  his  scheme  in  America, 
60. 

Fine  arts,  study  of,  failure  to  develop  true 
culture,  765.  See  also  Art;  Arts; 
Household  Arts;  Music;  Vocational 
education. 

Finland,  manual  training  in,  660. 

Formal  discipline,  problem  of,  298-306; 
and  algebra,  534  ;  experimental  studies 
of  transfer  of  training,  302-305  ;  and 
geometry.  537-53*5;  and  Greek,  407; 
and  Latin,  387-388  ;  and  manual  train- 
ing, 659;  and  modern  languages,  424; 
and  natural  sciences,  446-447,  454- 

458. 

Foster,  Dr.  \\.  L.,  on  physiological  age  in 
relation  to  success  in  high  school,  249- 
250. 

France,  agricultural  education  in,  673-674; 
history  in,  558-559,  560;  modern 
languages  in,  439-442  ;  school  popu- 
lation, 140-141;  secondary  education 
in,  71,  72-101  (outlined,  p.  xii,  xiii). 

Francke,  48. 

Franker,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Frankfort-plan  schools,  113. 

Frankfort  system,  and  teaching  of  Greek, 
41 6. 

Franklin,  Benjamin.  53,  54. 

Franklin  Union,  of  Philadelphia,  647. 

Frawnschule,  i  U>,  117;  weekly  program, 
119. 

Free  schools,  see  Tuition  fees. 

Freud,  on  sex  manifestations,  259,  261, 
2(13;  therapeutic  measures,  294. 

Froebcl,  i;    a  tutor,  46,  51. 

Fiirstcnschulcn,  44.  47. 

••Clangs,"  275-276. 

"General  science"  courses,  476. 

Geography  in  the  curriculum,  475,  476;  be- 


;8o 


Index 


ginning  point,  477-470;  concepts  to 
be  given,  476-477,  482-483 ;  method, 
477-479,  483-485 ;  order  of  topics, 
485-486 ;  textbooks  and  other  sources 
of  information,  479-481.  See  also 
Natural  sciences. 
Geology,  475. 

Geometry,  530;  definition,  536;  position 
in  grammar  grades,  541-544 ;  position 
in  secondary  schools,  538-539 ;  re- 
forms and  improvements,  539-541. 
See  also  Algebra  ;  Mathematics. 
George,  W.  R.,  his  "  Credo, "  296-297 ;  and 

sources  of  energy,  319. 
George  Junior  Republic,  323. 
German    Association    for    the    Secondary 

Education  of  Girls,  115. 
Germany,  agricultural  education  in,  673- 
674;  commercial  education,  668; 
Greek,  406,  415-416;  history,  558- 
559;  industrial  education,  645-646, 
653,655;  Latin,  415-416;  modern 
languages,  436-439 ;  physical  educa- 
tion, 704 ;  school  population,  140- 
141;  secondary  education,  71,  72,  101— 
122  (outlined,  p.  xiii). 
Ginnasio,  36. 

Girls,  first  form  of  secondary  education  for, 
7  ;  first  secondar3r  schools  for,  in  Amer- 
ica, 59-60;  education  in  England,  141  ; 
education  in  France,  94-101,  141; 
education  in  Germany,  115-120,  141; 
education  in  United  States,  50-60, 
648,  704-705.  See  also  Coeducation; 
Household  arts;  Program  of  studies. 
Goodell,  T.  D.,  contributor,  p.  ix,  Greek, 

406-420. 

Grammar,  origin,  4;    mastery  of,  a  profes- 
sion, 5  ;   change  in  content,  30. 
Grammar  school,  relation  to  high  school, 
186-188.     See    also    Latin    grammar 
school. 
Greard,    M.,  quoted   on   boys'    and   girls' 

secondary  education,  94. 
Greek  language,  mastery  for  cultural  ends, 
767;  method  for  beginners,  408-415; 
purpose  and  value,  406-408 ;  place 
in  schools,  125,  415-419;  valid  aims 
not  yet  formulated,  773;  visual  aids, 
420-421. 

Greek  view,  of  gymnastics  and  music,  580; 
of  value  of  gymnastics,  compared 
with  present  view,  328;  of  recreation, 
needed  to-day,  334 ;  of  secondary 
education,  3,  16-21. 


Gregariousness  in  adolescence,  273. 

Griscom,  John,  and  the  high  school,  61. 

Groton,  Mass.,  school  of  horticulture  and 
landscape  gardening  for  women, 
678. 

Group  work  in  classroom,  284-285. 

"Growing  pains,"  253. 

Growth,  arteries,  254;  bones,  253;  brain, 
257;  anrl  health,  252;  heart,  254;  in 
height,  250;  lungs,  255;  muscles,  254; 
by  parts,  252  ;  in  weight,  250. 

Guts  Muth,  system  of  gymnastics,  700. 

Gymnasium,  and  agricultural  education, 
674;  course  of  study,  108-109; 
Frankfort  system,  113;  German  form 
of  the  Latin  grammar  school,  36 ; 
graduates  compared  with  those  of  lycee 
and  England  public  school,  1 29 ;  and 
Greek,  415-416;  and  history,  558- 
559  ;  and  mathematics,  536.  See  also 
Germany ;  not  reached  through  ele- 
mentary school,  107  ;  one  of  the  types 
replacing  Riltcrakadcmicn,  47. 

Gymnastics,  see  Athletics;  Greek  view  of 
gymnastics;  Hygiene;  Physical  edu- 
cation. 

Habits  to  be  developed  by  study  of  natural 
science,  449. 

Hall,  Stanley,  adolescent  altruism,  275 ; 
appetite  in  adolescence,  261  ;  on  bone 
growth,  254;  change  of  voice,  256; 
high  school  science,  306;  leading  in- 
vestigator of  adolescence,  257,  note; 
love  for  older  persons,  265 ;  mani- 
festations of  sex  instinct,  259;  moral 
idealism,  347. 

Handwork,  sec  Manual  training. 

Harrow  (1571),  124. 

Hartwell,  on  death  rate  in  Boston,  252. 

Health  in  relation  to  adolescence,  252. 

Heart,  growth  during  adolescence,  254. 

Hecker  and  real  education,  48,  49. 

Height  as  an  index  of  physiological  age 
249,  note;  growth  in,  during  adoles- 
cence, 250-252. 

Hellenism,  value  of  acquaintance  with, 
406-408. 

Herbart,    j  ;    a    tutor,    46;    on    failure    of 

external  forces   to   change   character, 

f 
313- 

Heredity,  a  factor  in  developing  the  indi- 
vidual, 757. 

Hero  worship,  and  moral  training,  344-345. 
Sec  also  Moral  education. 


Index 


78 


Ilcrtcl,    on    health    during    adolescence, 

2SS- 

Hetherington,  Clark  W.,  contributor,  p. 
x,  Athletics,  700-720. 

High  school,  comparison  with  Latin  gram- 
mar school  and  academy,  60-6 1,  67  ; 
definition  (1840),  65;  organization  of, 
i74-22g(outlined,  pp.  xiv-xvi)  ;  origin 
of  term,  61,  64,  65;  origin  and  devel- 
opment, 61-63,  M°t  235  >  social  as- 
pects of,  732-742  (outlined,  p.  xxvii). 
Systems:  development  of,  64-08;  high- 
est types  in  the  United  States,  158 -- 
1 60  ;  means  of  securing,  148. 

High  schools,  basis  of  apportionment  of 
support  to,  160-161 ;  legal  provisions 
for,  146;  maintenance  and  support  in 
various  states,  154-158;  method  of 
transferring  pupils  to  college,  161,  by 
examination  of  applicant,  162-163, 
by  accrediting  the  school,  162,  163- 
172;  political  unit  of  organization, 
148—149;  uniformity  in,  146-148, 
747—748.  Sec  also  Administration. 

Higher  Training  School,  German,  n6,  117  ; 
weekly  program,  120. 

Historic  sense,  development  of,  as  aim  of 
education,  749. 

Historical  side  of  vernacular  teaching,  367- 
368. 

History,  aims:  actual  vs.  true,  752,  753: 
valid,  not  yet  formulated,  773  ;  defini- 
tion, 540-550;  as  an  element  of  cul- 
tural education,  767  ;  materials,  550 
551  ;  as  means  of  moral  training,  343, 
314-345;  methods:  564,  Dewey quoted 
on,  205-206,  socialized,  773;  place  in 
the  curriculum,  552-555  ;  place  in  Eu- 
ropean  schools,  558-559;  problems  of 
teaching,  551-552;  visual  aids  to 
teaching,  564-565.  See  also  Civics; 
Economics. 

Home,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758,  760, 
762. 

Home  life,  as  determining  ideals,  290. 

Hoole,   method   in   the   Grammar  schools, 

43- 

Hopkins,  Edward,  and  the  Latin  Grammar 
Schools,  52. 

Horace  Mann  period,  63. 

Household  arts  education,  aims  now  being 
clarified,  772;  close  connection  with 
life  necessary,  611-612;  clothing  and 
hygiene,  612-613;  content,  600  610; 
equipment,  618-619  ',  exhibitions,  620- 


621;  food  and  nutrition,  613-616; 
home  formerly  the  place  for  teaching, 
608;  housing  and  home-keeping,  6 1 6- 
617,  619-620,623—624;  purpose,  6 10— 
611 ;  socialized,  735  ;  status  in  schools 
of  United  States,  632-637;  teachers, 
621-623;  vocational  aspect,  624-632. 
See  also  Types  of  schools ;  Vocational 
education. 

Humanism,  long  persistence,  in  England, 
125—126;  in  France,  73. 

Humanizing  the  school,  193,  732-742. 
Sec  also  Social  aspects  of  high  school 
education;  Social  education;  Soci- 
ology. 

Huxley,  on  the  intellectual  ladder  in 
America,  106. 

Hygiene,  of  bone  growth,  253-254;  defini- 
tion, 685;  personal,  685-688;  position 
in  curriculum,  688-690,  692-694; 
scope  of  course,  600-691,  693-694; 
methods,  692. 

School,  694 ;  of  the  school  child,  695  ; 
of  instruction,  696;  construction  and 
sanitation  of  schoolhouse,  696—698. 
Sex,  instruction  in,  266—270,  694;  of 
voice  during  adolescence,  256-257. 
See  also  Administration  ;  Athletics ; 
Physical  education. 

Ideals,  adolescent,  330—331 ;  developed  by 
scientific  study,  453-454;  of  sexual 
honor,  336-337 ;  studies  of,  289-292. 
Sec  also  Moral  education  ;  Reorganiza- 
tion  of  secondary  education. 

Imperial  Technical  School  of  St.  Petersburg, 
6(>  i . 

Industrial  education,  definition,  642; 
European  experience,  645-646;  factors 
in  present  problem,  644-645;  manual 
training,  658-662;  origin  of  present 
problem  of,  643 ;  socialization  of 
methods,  735;.  United  States,  con- 
ditions in,  646-658.  See  also  House- 
hold arts;  Industries;  Types  of 
schools;  Vocational  education. 

Industries,  chart  showing  proportion  of 
workers  to  boys  in  training,  196-199; 
cooperation  with  schools,  199-200, 
737>  77°-  See  also  Industrial  educa- 
tion. 

Inspection  of  high  schools,  161,  164-169; 
not  required  for  accrediting,  170-172. 
See  also  Accrediting  of  high  schools  ; 
Administration. 


782 


Index 


Institutions  contributing  to  education, 
757-758. 

Instruction,  type  of,  as  determining  ideals, 
290-291. 

Interests  of  students,  as  determining  sec- 
ondary education,  10,  13. 

Jahn,  system  of  gymnastics,  700. 

James,  E.  J.,  and  commercial  high  schools, 

667. 

James,  \Vm.,  on  formal  discipline,  303,  304. 
Japan,  agricultural  education  in,  673,  674. 
Jesuit  system,  selective  function,  8;  Ratio 

studionim,  a  model  for  generations,  72. 
Johnson,    Joseph    H.,    contributor,    p.    x, 

Commercial  Education,  663-671. 

Kerschensteiner,  Dr.,  quoted  on  inde- 
pendent thinking,  315-316;  on 
trade  work  in  continuation  schools, 
645- 

Key,  Axel,  study  of  health  in  adolescence, 
252,  255. 

Kline,  on  cause  of  truancy,  271. 

Knowledge,  as  well  as  feelings,  indicated 
by  tastes,  364-365- 

Krapp,  George  P.,  and  Baker,  F.  T.,  con- 
tributors, p.  viii,  English  Literature, 
356-383- 

Laboratory,  in  biology,  493-494 ;  in  chem- 
istry, 513,  517-518;  double  periods, 
180;  in  geography,  484-485  ;  in  phys- 
ics, 505—506  ;  in  science  teaching,  462— 
467.  Sec  also  Natural  sciences. 

Lancaster,  E.  J.,  on  adolescence,  260,  262 ; 
on  types  of  reading  preferred  by  adoles- 
cents, 308. 

Lancaster,  Joseph,  his  monitorial  ideas  in 
America,  61-62. 

Land  Grant  Colleges,  672.  See  also 
Morril!  Act. 

Language  study,  during  adolescence,  307 ; 
socialized  methods  in,  735.  Sec  also 
Greek  ;  Latin  ;  Modern  languages  ; 
Vernacular. 

Lantern  slides,  in  study  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  420;  in  natural  sciences, 
467. 

Latin,  mastery  for  cultural  ends,  767 ; 
methods  of  teaching,  389-405 ;  place 
in  the  curriculum,  125,  387;  reorgani- 
zation needed,  751  ;  valid  aims  not 
yet  formulated,  773;  value,  387-389; 
visual  aids,  420—421. 


Latin  grammar  school,  in  American  colo- 
nies, 37 ;  narrow  conception  of  abili- 
ties, 8 ;  origin  and  development,  51-53. 
in  Renaissance-Reformation  period, 
36-37 ;  selective  function,  8.  See 
also  Lycee  ;  Gymnasium;  "Public" 
schools. 

Leadership,  training  for,  in  ancient  Greece, 
20;  in  England,  123,  128-129;  in 
France,  77,  101 ;  in  Germany,  106- 
107. 

Lecture  demonstrations  in  science  teach- 
ing, 467. 

Lehrplan  of  1901,  on  Greek,  406. 

Lewis,  Dr.  Dio,  system  of  calisthenics, 
703- 

Lewis,  W.  D.,  contributor,  p.  vii,  Organi- 
zation of  the  High  School,  174-214. 

Lewis  Institute,  Chicago,  655. 

Library,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
760. 

Life,  influence  of  new  conditions  of,  234, 
558,  608—610,  623,  644,  663,  672  ;  re- 
lation of  secondary  education  to,  732— 
742;  in  England,  123,  128;  in  Ger- 
many, 101  ;  in  United  States,  194-201. 
See  also  Humanizing  the  curriculum ; 
Reorganization  of  secondary  educa- 
tion ;  Social  aspects  of  high  school 
education ;  Social  education ;  Soci- 
ology ;  Vocational  education. 

''Lime-hunger,"  253. 

Lindsey,  Ben.,  on  sources  of  energy,  319. 

Ling  system  of  gymnastics,  699,  700. 

Linguistic  side  of  vernacular  teaching,  365- 
366. 

Literature,  adolescent  interest  in,  307 ; 
as  an  art,  582  ;  failure  of  its  study  to 
develop  appreciation,  765  ;  as  means 
of  moral  training,  343-344 ;  Greek 
views  of  principles  underlying  its 
teaching,  356-357. 

English,  in  secondary  schools,  357  ;  ap- 
preciation, 358;  cultural  value,  362; 
grading  of  material,  363 ;  literary 
language,  359-360;  moral  value,  362; 
philological  method,  360;  structure 
and  technique,  361  ;  vocabulary,  358- 
359.  Sec  also  Composition. 

Locke,  a  tutor,  46;    quoted,  50. 

Lodge,  Gonzales,  contributor,  p.  viii,  387- 

405- 

"Log  college,''  preceding  Princeton,  54. 
Logic,  origin,  4 ;    mastery  of,  a  profession, 

5  ;   change  in  content,  30. 


Index 


783 


J,ove,  development  of,  in  adolescence,  264- 
266. 

Lowell,  Mass.,  State-aided  textile  school, 
055. 

Ludus  Literarius,  and  the  neglect  of  arith- 
metic, 40. 

Lungs,  growth  during  adolescence,  255. 

Lycee,  a  boarding  school,  87-88;  delined, 
75;  degree  awarded,  85-87,  gg;  a  fin- 
ishing school  —  comparison  of  gradu- 
ates with  those  of  gymnasium  or  Eng- 
lish public  school,  120;  French  form  of 
the  Latin  grammar  school,  36 ;  for 
girls,  94,  05;  graduate  courses,  80; 
history  in,  558-550;  modern  languages 
in,  439-442 ;  preparation  of  teachers, 
100;  program  of  studies,  80-85,  97~ 
g8;  teachers  and  officers,  88 ;  tuition 
fees,  93,  100.  See  nlso  College;  Col- 
lege, French  communal ;  France,  sec- 
ondary education  in. 

Lyte,  Sir  Maxwell,  on  education  for  public 
life,  124. 

Lyzeum,  115,  116;  weekly  program,  118, 
1 19.  Sec  also  Germany ;  Gymnasium  ; 
Obcrlyzeum ;  Realgymnasium ;  Real- 
schule. 

MacKenzie,  on  voice  training  during 
adolescence,  257. 

Manchester  Grammar  School,  131. 

Manhattan  Trade  School,  624. 

Manual  arts  high  schools,  seldom  realize 
technical  ends,  740. 

Manual  training,  definition,  658;  content 
of  course,  660;  educational  value,  658- 
660 ;  place  in  various  national  educa- 
tional systems,  660-662  ;  relation  to  in- 
dustrial education,  662.  See  also  Indus- 
trial education  ;  Vocational  education. 

Maps,  in  teaching  the  classics,  420. 

Massachusetts  Commission  on  Industrial 
and  Technical  Education,  651. 

Mathematics,  branches  of  the  subject, 
530 ;  college  entrance  requirements, 
544-546 ;  as  an  element  of  cultural 
education,  767;  nature  and  use,  520; 
reasons  for  studying,  530 ;  reorganiza- 
tion needed,  751  ;  scope  of  secondary, 
531;  valid  aims  not  yet  formulated, 
773  ;  visual  aids  to  teaching,  546-547. 
See  also  Algebra ;  Geometry. 

Mechanics  Institute  of  New  York,  647. 

Melanchthon,  43. 

Mental  training,  as  aim  of  education,  741). 


Merchant  Taylors',  124. 

Meteorology,  475. 

Method,  wider  definition  of,  747. 

In  various  schools :  the  academy,  60 ; 
service  of  the  academy  to,  45  ;  develop- 
ment of:  in  high  school,  67,  68;  in 
Latin  grammar  schools  of  America,  53  ; 
in  schools  of  Middle  Ages,  34;  in  Ren- 
aissance-Reformation schools,  42-44; 
Roman  contribution  to,  27-29. 
In  the  various  subjects:  to  be  deter- 
mined by  purpose  of  leaching  the  sub- 
ject, 203-204;  art,  582-587,  592-593; 
biology,  488-494 ;  chemistry,  508- 
509;  composition,  375-379;  English, 
370-373 ;  geography,  477-481,  483- 
486;  Greek,  408  415;  history,  560- 
564;  Latin,  389-405;  modern  lan- 
guages, 424-431,  437-439;  music, 
597  604 ;  natural  sciences,  450-472; 
physics,  496-498,  500-504,  505-508. 
Scientific,  how  to  build  up  concept  of, 
in  mind  of  pupil,  456  ;  value  of  the  ac- 
quisition, 458-459;  mastery  of  scien- 
tific method,  as  aim  of  education,  749. 

Methods,  depend  on  aims,  754-755;  more 
scientific  analysis  of,  demanded,  746; 
new,  have  developed  in  secondary 
schools,  i  ;  often  uncertain  and  arbi- 
trary, 745 ;  reorganization  needed, 
753 ;  socialized,  735-736. 

Meumann  as  to  transfer  of  training,  303, 

304- 

Meylan,  G.  R.,  and  Storey,  Thomas  A., 
contributors,  p.  x,  Hygiene  and  Physi- 
cal Education,  685-705. 

Michigan  plan  of  accrediting  high  schools, 
164-167. 

Middle  Ages,  view  of  secondary  education, 
5  :  contribution  to  secondary  educa- 
tion. 20.  30 ;  use  of  Latin,  387. 

Migratory  instinct  in  adolescence,  270-272. 

Military  schools,  private,  240. 

Milton,  46,  49;  on  value  of  classical  study, 

343-344- 

Milwaukee  School  of  Trades,  649. 
Minister   tier   xeislliehen    und    Unterrichts- 

A  ngelcgenheiten,  102. 
Minister  of  education,  French  and  German, 

difference  in  responsibility,  102-103. 
Minnesota  agricultural  college.  674. 
Models,  of  geometric  solids,  546-547  ;  use 

in  teaching  Latin  and  Greek,  421. 
Modern  Language  Association,  433. 
Modern   languages,   actual    -cs.   true    aims, 


784 


Index 


752,  753 ;  alms  already  well  defined, 
772;  mastery  for  cultural  ends,  767; 
methods  of  teaching,  424-431,  437- 
439;  place  in  curriculum,  431-443; 
purpose  of  study,  424 ;  results  of 
school  work,  431 ;  socialized  methods, 
737- 

Modistenschulen,  44. 

Monitorial  high  schools,  61-62. 

Monroe,  Paul,  editor  and  contributor,  p. 
vii,  Meaning  and  Scope  of  Secondary' 
Education,  1-15;  Historic  Sketch  of 
Secondary  Education,  16—70. 

Montaigne,  quoted  on  method,  50. 

Moral  aspects  of  adolescence,  285-292. 

Moral  character,  as  result  of  education,  764. 

Moral  education,  313-34?,  35°,  353  (out- 
lined, p.  xviii,  xix).  See  also  Reli- 
gious education. 

Moral  instruction,  direct,  317,  and  note. 

Morrill  Act,  648,  672. 

Mt.  Hermon  School,  Mass.,  agricultural, 
678. 

Municipal  activities,  course  in,  567. 

Municipal  civics,  syllabus  of,  567. 

Municipal  government,  courses  in,  572. 

Muscles,  growth  during  adolescence,  254. 

Music  teaching  in  the  schools,  aim,  594- 
595 ;  failure  to  develop  true  culture, 
765;  methods,  597-603,  736,  740; 
present  broadening  of  use  and  appre- 
ciation, 595-597,  603-604.  See  also 
Art. 

Narration,  as  a  form  of  composition,  373- 

374- 
National  Conference  on  College  Entrance 

Requirements  in  English,  383. 
National  Council  of  teachers  of   English, 

384- 

National  education,  see  Universal  educa- 
tion. 

National  Farm  School,  Doylestown,  Pa., 
678. 

Natural  sciences,  aims,  actual  and  ideal, 
752;  alleged  inadequacies,  306-307; 
methods,  450-472,  735 ;  mastery  of 
scientific  method  as  aim  of  education, 
749;  relation  to  college  entrance  re- 
quirements, 473-475  ;  subjects  taught, 
475,  476:  values,  44&-45Q,  7^5-  767- 
See  also  Biology  ;  Chemistry  ;  Geog- 
raphy ;  Physics. 

Nautical  callings,  in  vocational  training, 
761. 


New  Bedford,  state-aided  textile  school, 

655- 

New  England  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Preparatory  Schools,  383,  554. 

New  England  Commission  of  Colleges,  383. 

New  York  Trade  School,  649,  650. 

Newton  High  School,  study  of  cost  of 
various  subjects  per  pupil-hour  of 
recitation,  199. 

Non-conformity,  effect  on  secondary  edu- 
cation, 47,  54. 

Normal  schools,  developed  from  academies, 
57- 

S  ormallchr  plan  dcs  Gymnasiums,  and 
algebra,  536. 

Northampton  School  of  Technology,  678. 

Number  of  schools,  increase  in  Renaissance- 
Reformation  period,  37-40 ;  academies 
in  America,  56;  English  "public," 
124;  English  secondary,  136;  German 
secondary,  1 1  i-i  1 2  ;  high  schools, 
65-66 ;  lycee s  and  communal  colleges, 
87  ;  rural  high  schools,  151—154.  See 
also  Administration. 

Nurture,  a  factor  in  developing  the  indi- 
vidual, 757. 

Oberlehrer,  121. 

Oberlyzeum,  116,  117;  weekly  program,  119, 
120.  See  also  Lyzeum. 

Oberrealschule,  49,  no,  116;  weekly  pro- 
gram, in.  See  also  Rcalgymnasium  ; 
Realschule. 

Occupational  ideals,  variety  of,  291. 

Ohio  Mechanics  Institute,  of  Cincinnati, 
047,  655. 

Oral  method  of  language  teaching,  395— 
396,  410-411,  424-427. 

Orator,  sole  type  of  educated  man  in  Rome, 
28. 

Oratory,  the  teaching  of  ancient,  23,  26; 
modern,  379-381. 

Organization  of  high  school,  sec  Administra- 
tion. 

O'Shea,  M.  V.,  quoted,  on  method,  203. 

Oster,  Sir  Wm.,  quoted,  on  value  of  Greek, 
406. 

Palmer,  Erastus,  contributor,  p.  viii,  Oral 

Speech,  379-382. 
Parents'  meeting,  335-336- 
Partictdarschulen,  44. 
"Passing,"'    system     encourages     mental 

loafing,  329. 
Pathology,  mental,  of  adolescence,  292-298. 


Index 


Paulsen,  on  voice  control  during  adoles- 
cence, 256-257. 

Pedagogia,  44. 

"Pedagogical"  age  vs.  physiological  and 
psychological,  248. 

Peirce,  Benj.,  definition  of  mathematics, 
529- 

Perry,  Clarence  A.,  contributor,  p.  x, 
Social  Aspects  of  High  School  Educa- 
tion, 7,52-742. 

Perse  School,  Cambridge,  program  of 
studies,  128;  experimental  work  in 
teaching  classics,  41.5. 

Pestalozzi,  5 1  ;  his  ideas  in  America,  60. 

Phelps,  Jessie,  on  teaching  of  sex  hygiene, 
270. 

Philanthropinists,  51. 

Phillips'  academies,  55. 

Physical  education,  adequate  teaching  will 
necessitate  changes  in  administration, 
774;  analysis  of  aims,  760-761;  defi- 
nition, 759;  early  conceptions,  698- 
699 ;  forms  of  gymnastic  exercise, 
700 ;  gymnastics  for  girls,  704 ; 
gymnastics  vs.  athletics,  700-702; 
modern  views,  690-700,  709;  position 
in  schools,  703-704 ;  reorganization 
based  on  these  aims,  768—769.  Sec 
also  Athletics;  Hygiene. 

Physical  efficiency  as  an  end  of  education, 
746. 

Physics,  actual  vs.  true  aims,  752,  75,5; 
beginning  points,  495-50,5 ;  in  the  cur- 
riculum, 475,  476;  method,  496—498, 
500-504,  505-508;  subject  matter, 
495-496,  504-505  ;  valid  aims  not  yet 
formulated,  773.  Sec  also  Natural 
.  sciences. 

Physiological  age,  concept  of,  248 ;  relation 
to  success  in  high  school,  249  250; 
vs.  psychological  and  "pedagogical" 
age,  248. 

Physiology,  see  Biology. 

Physique,  mental  and  moral  advantages  of 
developing  the,  327. 

Plato,  and  the  choice  of  studies,  34,5 ;  on 
education  for  leadership,  20;  on  the 
teaching  of  literature,  356-357. 

Playground,  a  factor  in  education,  757, 
758.  760. 

Police  power,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758. 

Political  evils,  one  remedy  may  lie  in  high 
school  extension,  742. 

Practical  arts,  aims  now  being  clarified, 
772.  See  also  Household  arts. 

3  E 


Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn,  655. 

Preparatory  schools,  private  and  public, 
239-240;  in  England  are  not  second- 
ary schools,  130. 

Press,  the,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
760. 

Primary  school,  distinction  from  secondary, 
in  France,  76-77,  in  Germany,  105- 
107.  See  also  Elementary  education. 

Principal  of  high  school  and  board  of  edu- 
cation, 211-213;  as  critic  of  class 
work,  206 ;  not  to  be  a  czar,  174 ;  and 
the  heads  of  departments,  206;  and 
the  narrow  teacher,  201-202;  open- 
minderlness  necessary  in  adjusting 
school  to  life,  200-201,  738;  and  the 
principals  of  grammar  schools,  186-187  ; 
relation  to  various  activities  of  the 
school,  184;  spirit  reflected  in  school, 
201,  738;  visits  to  classes,  206.  See 
also  Administrations. 

Principalship,  how  to  attract  first-class 
men,  213-214. 

Private  schools,  definition,  233  ;  advantages 
and  disadvantages,  233-235  ;  types  of, 
2,53-234,  237-241. 

Probcjahr,  121. 

Problem,  defined,  446,  note. 

Problems  of  youth,  320-321;  discussed, 
327-338;  named,  325-326;  points  of 
contact  between  educator  and  edu- 
cand,  325  ;  sources  of  information  con- 
cerning, 321-323. 

Professeurs,  teachers  in  a  lycec,  88. 

Professions,  secondary  education  a  prep- 
aration for,  5;  secondary  education 
preliminary  to  preparation  for,  6. 

Program  of  studies,  College  de  Guyenne, 
Bordeaux  (1572),  42;  College  de  la 
Rive,  Geneva  (1559),  41-42;  English 
grant  school,  138-140;  Eton,  127; 
Frauenschide,  119;  French  secondary 
schools,  80-85,97-98;  Gymnasium,  109. 
High  school :  academic  including  house- 
hold arts,  630 ;  of  Commerce,  New 
York  City,  668-670;  girls'  technical, 
627;  typical  examples  of,  216-219. 
Lyzeum,  118-119;  Oberrealschule,  in; 
Perse  School,  Cambridge,  England,  128; 
RealRymnasium,  no;  Somerville,  628- 
629,  631-632;  Sturm's  at  Strassburg 
0565),  40-41 ;  teachers'  training 
school,  Germany,  120:  Worcester 
Girls'  Industrial  School,  625-626. 
See  also  Curriculum. 


;86 


Index 


Programs  of  studies,  now  flexible,  746. 

Progymnasium,  108,  in,  112. 

Promotion  by  subject,  daily  roster  for, 
177- 

Provincial  Schidkollegium,  103. 

Proviseur,  headmaster,  88. 

Psychological  age  vs.  physiological  and 
"pedagogical,"  248. 

Psychological  phenomena  of  adolescence, 
257-272 ;  pathological,  292-208. 

Psychology,  effect  of  increasing  knowledge 
of,  on  education,  745,  747.  See  also 
Adolescence. 

Puberty,  vs.  adolescence,  246 ;  date  of  on- 
set, 247-248. 

"Public"  schools,  English  form  of  the 
Latin  Grammar  School,  37 ;  and 
public  life,  123-131;  Winchester,  the 
oldest,  32.  See  also  England. 

Public  Schools  Athletic  League,  rules  of 
eligibility,  725. 

Quintilian,  quoted,  27,  28. 

Reading,  adolescent  love  for,  307-308. 

Realgymnasium,  49,  109,  113,  114,  116; 
weekly  program,  no;  and  agricultural 
education,  674.  See  also  Realschule. 

Realistic  schools,  characteristics  in  Renais- 
sance-Reformation period,  44-45. 

Realprogymnasium,  108,  112. 

Realschule,  47-40,  108,  114,  674.  See  also 
Realgymnasium. 

Recitation  vs.  class  conference,  460. 

Recreation,  and  moral  training,  334-336; 
socialized,  739. 

Reform  Gymnasium,  113. 

Reforms  in  secondary  education,  76,  746, 
753,  767-774. 

Regents'  examinations,  proportion  of  fail- 
ures, 202. 

Rcisepriifung,  116. 

Religious  aspects  of  adolescence,  285-292, 
275,  note. 

Religious  education,  347—353  (outlined,  p. 
xix).  Sfc  also  Moral  education. 

Renaissance,  effect  in  America,  54 ;  influ- 
ence on  secondary'  education,  4 ;  in- 
terest in  Greek,  415  ;  methods  of  teach- 
ing art,  583  ;  use  of  Latin,  387. 

Reorganization  of  education,  forces  now 
producing,  745 ;  must  attack  aims 
first,  750-753 ;  need  of,  to  be  under- 
stood only  through  a  study  of  the 
evolution  of  present  conditions,  11-13, 


755;  that  already  accomplished,  746; 
that  still  to  be  accomplished,  746-747, 
756;  final  word  upon,  774.  See  also 
Administration. 

Repetileurs,  tutors,  91. 

Requirements  for  college  entrance,  see 
College  entrance  requirements. 

Retardation  and  acceleration,  concept  of, 
248-249 ;  developmental,  during  ado- 
lescence, 292-294. 

Rhetoric,  origin,  4 ;  mastery  of,  a  pro- 
fession, 5 ;  change  in  content,  29,  30. 

Ribot  Parliamentary  Committee,  76. 

Richards,  C.  R.,  contributor,  p.  x,  Indus- 
trial Education,  642-662. 

Richards,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.,  quoted  on  neces- 
sity for  teaching  household  arts,  623. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  quoted  on  youth  and 
age,  347. 

Ritterakademien,  44,  47. 

Robison,  C.  H.,  contributor,  p.  x,  Agricul- 
tural Education,  671-679. 

Roman  contribution  to  method,  27-29; 
view  of  secondary  education,  5. 

Roster,  daily,  for  promotion  by  subject, 
177-182. 

Rousseau,  first  to  emphasize  importance 
of  adolescence,  9;  quoted  on  adoles- 
cence, 246;  on  moral  training,  317; 
a  realist,  51. 

Ruediger,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  304. 

Rugby,  124. 

Rural  high  schools,  140-154. 

Russian  system  of  manual  training,  661. 

Saint-Cyr,  military  school  at,  439. 

St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School,  661. 

St.  Paul's,  English  public  school,  124.    • 

Salaries,  England,  135,  note;  France,  91- 
92;  Germany,  121-122;  in  Roman 
schools,  25 ;  in  United  States,  214. 
See  also  Administration. 

School,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
75S-759- 

"School  City,"  282-283. 

School  life,  as  means  of  moral  training,  338- 
339 ;  work,  as  an  instrument  of  moral 
training,  341-342. 

Schoolmasters'  Association  of  New  York 
and  vicinity,  555. 

School  plant,  wider  use  of,  738-742. 

School  population,  England,  137 ;  France, 
87,98;  Germany,  ii  i-i  12  ;  compara- 
tive statistics,  including  United  States, 
140-141.  See  also  Administration. 


Index 


787 


Science,  see  Natural  sciences. 

Scientific  knowledge,  not  tradition,  as  basis 
for  educational  practice,  745,  747. 

Scientific  method,  mastery  of,  as  aim  of 
education,  740. 

Scope  of  secondary  education,  1-3. 

Scripture,  as  to  transfer  of  training,  ,504. 

Secondary  education, 

Definition:    in  France ,  75,  76;    in  Ger- 
many,    107;     in    England,     \.<,\;     in 
United  States  vs.  European  countries, 
71- 
Disagreement  as  to  scope  and  meaning, 

1-3;  fundamental  importance,  i. 
General  characteristics:  English,  122- 
123;  English  " public "  schools,  130; 
French,  100-101;  German,  101-102; 
United  States,  146-148,  Chapter  XX. 
Historic  sketch,  16-64;  recent  recon- 
struction of  foreign,  76 ;  reorganiza- 
tion needed  everywhere,  745—774 ;  is 
special  domain  of  private  schools, 
236-237.  See  also  Administration ; 
Elementary  education ;  Primary 
school. 

Secondary  school,  democratic  function,  g, 
13  ;  function  in  social  education,  763; 
diversification  of:  in  Europe,  14; 
needed  in  .America,  15;  begun  in 
United  States,  740-750.  See  also 
Administration ;  Elementary  educa- 
tion ;  High  school ;  Secondary  ed- 
ucation ;  Types  of  school. 

Secularization  of  the  schools,  347-348 ; 
reaction,  348 ;  danger  of  the  secular 
school,  349. 

Self,  realization  of  the,  327-331. 

Self-activity,  essential  to  intellectual  and 
moral  advance,  329-330. 

Self-government  in  high  schools,  189-192, 
736;  its  future,  770;  as  a  means  of 
moral  training,  330-341  ;  types  of, 
282-283.  See  also  Discipline. 

Seligman,  E.  R.  A.,  contributor,  p.  ix, 
Economics,  573-574. 

Seminary,  44. 

Sensory  development  during  adolescence, 
259-262. 

Seventeenth-century  conception  of  second- 
ary education,  6,  7. 

Sex,  characters,  primary  and  secondary, 
258;  charms  and  fetishes,  263-264; 
as  determining  ideals.  200;  develojv 
ment  of  love,  264-266 ;  hygiene,  in- 
struction in,  266-270;  instinct,  262- 


263 ;    relations,   and  moral   training, 
336-338. 

Shrewsbury,  124. 

Sisson,  E.  O.,  contributor,  p.  viii,  Moral  Ed- 
ucation in  the  High  School,  313-353. 

Six-year  high  school,  201,  226-229. 

Smith,  I).  E.,  contributor,  p.  ix,  Mathe- 
matics, 529-547. 

Smith,  Dr.  \V'm.,  and  King's  College,  53. 

Smith  Agricultural  School,  Northampton, 
Mass.,  678. 

Snedden,  David,  contributor,  p.  viii,  The 
Curriculum,  214-229;  Reorganization 
of  Secondary  Education,  745-774. 

Snyder,  Edwin  R.,  contributor,  p.  vii, 
Rural  High  Schools,  149-154. 

Social  aspects,  of  adolescence,  272-285; 
of  high  school  education :  content  of 
instruction,  734 ;  extension  work,  738— 
742;  methods,  735-736;  organization, 
736-738;  point  of  view,  732-733; 
underlying  principles,  733.  See  also 
Humanizing  the  school ;  Social  educa- 
tion. 

Social  economy,  effects  on  education  of 
increasing  knowledge  of,  745,  746,  747. 

Social  education,  analysis  of  aims,  763- 
764;  definition,  759,  762;  reorganiza- 
tion based  on  these  aims,  770.  See 
also  Social  aspects  of  high  school  edu- 
cation. 

Social  individual,  as  result  of  education, 
764. 

Social  nature  of  adolescent  ideals,  291. 

Social  sciences,  see  Civics,  Economics, 
History. 

Social  selection  by  secondary  school,  7-9 ; 
in  England,  123-124,  128-129,  13°- 
131  ;  in  France,  77 ;  in  Germany,  101 ; 
in  private  schools,  241-243. 

Social  service,  secondary  education  a  prep- 
aration for,  14,  15. 

Social  station,  as  determining  ideals,  290. 
j  Societies,  high  school  secret,  279-282,  335; 
maxims  for  organizing,  276-277 ; 
school,  types  of,  278-282;  284;  self- 
organized  ('"gangs"),  275-276;  varie- 
ties of  adult-made,  277-278. 

Society,  effect  of  complexity  of  modern,  2. 

Sociology,  its  arguments  for  and  against  co- 
education, 309 ;  moral  training  through 
school  study  of,  345-347.  See  also 
Social  aspects  of  high  school  education. 

Somerville  school  programs  showing  house- 
hold arts,  628-629,  631-632. 


788 


Index 


Spaulding,  Supt.,  quoted  on  adjusting 
education  to  needs  of  industry,  196. 

Specialization,  in  Germany,  112;  of  high 
schools,  740-750;  among  teachers, 
French  custom,  90,  91.  See  also  Types 
of  schools. 

Speech,  training  in  oral,  370-392.  See  also 
Composition ;  Oratory. 

Spiess,  system  of  gymnastics,  700. 

Sprachgefuhl,  425,  431. 

Spring  Garden  Institute,  of  Philadelphia, 
647. 

Stableton,  and  sources  of  energy,  319, 
323. 

Stage,  the,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
760. 

Standards  of  quality  and  of  degree,  great 
need  of,  755. 

Storey,  Thomas  A.,  and  Meylan,  G.  R., 
contributors,  p.  x,  Hygiene  and 
Physical  Education,  685-705. 

Strayer,  G.  D.,  study  of  markings  given  by 
teachers,  202. 

Strong,  Ann  G.,  contributor,  p.  x,  House- 
hold Arts,  608-637. 

Structural  side  of  vernacular  teaching,  369- 
37°. 

Student  advisor  system,  193,  194. 

Studio,  vs.  studies,  342-343. 

Studienanstalt,  116— 118. 

Studies,  relative  moral  value  of,  343-346 ; 
certain,  may  be  replaced  by  others  as 
valid  aims  are  formulated,  767. 

Subject   matter,    its   effect   on   character, 

342-374- 
Subjects,   relative  cost  per  pupil-hour  of 

recitation,  199. 

Subnormal,  attention  to,  in  America,  9. 
Suetonius,    quoted   on    the   beginnings   of 

secondary   education    in    Rome,    24- 

25- 
Sullivan,  James,  contributor,  p.  ix,  Civics, 

565-573- 

Supernormal,  attention  to,  in  America,  9. 
Sweden,  agricultural  education  in,  673. 
Swift,  on  criminal  tendencies  in  adolescence, 

295,  note. 

Sylvius,  tineas,  a  tutor,  46. 
Sympathy,      in      adolescence,      273-274; 

growth  of,  during  youth,  319-320. 
Syms,  and  the  Latin  grammar  school,  51. 

Tacitus,  quoted  on  oratory,  26. 
Taylor,  Dr.  F.  \V.,  quoted  on  relation  be- 
tween principal  and  board,  212. 


Teacher,  as  a  factor  in  formal  discipline, 
305 ;  as  an  interpreter  of  literature, 
363-373 ;  more  interested  in  subject 
than  in  students,  203. 

Teaching  congregations  suppressed  in 
France,  73. 

Teaching  force,  in  France,  88—91. 

Teachers,  assignment  of  work  to,  182-184; 
conduct  of  meetings  of,  207—208 ; 
moral  influence :  limited  by  school 
conditions,  351,  potential,  353;  num- 
ber of  pupil-hours  should  determine 
allotment  of  work  to,  210—211 ;  prep- 
aration :  in  France,  89,  99—100,  in 
Germany,  120—121;  qualifications: 
for  household  arts,  621—623,  for  natu- 
ral sciences,  519—521 ;  scientific  meas- 
urement of  ability,  209—210;  teach- 
ing only  "  lessons,"  350.  See  also 
Administration. 

Technical  high  schools  seldom  realize 
vocational  ends,  749,  750. 

Technological  High  School,  Cincinnati, 
655- 

Tenure  of  office,  French  teachers',  92. 

Textbooks,  in  algebra,  535 ;  in  chemistry, 
how  to  use,  512;  in  physical  geog- 
raphy, way  to  use,  479-480.  See  also 
Administration. 

Textile  Department  of  the  Georgia  School 
of  Technology  at  Atlanta,  655. 

Textile  School  of  the  Pennsylvania  Museum 
at  Philadelphia.  655. 

Thinking  powers,  development  of,  as  aim 
of  education,  749. 

Thomas,  \V.  Scott,  contributor,  p.  vii,  In- 
spection and  Accrediting  of  Schools, 
161-172. 

Thorndike,  on  transfer  of  training,  303. 

Thring,  of  Uppingham,  125;  and  the 
classics,  344 ;  and  sources  of  energy, 
319,  323,  347- 

Toledo  Manual  Training  School,  661. 

Traditions,  educational,  now  giving  way, 
746. 

Training,  experimental  studies  of  transfer  of, 
302-305.  Sec  also  Formal  discipline. 

Training  of  teachers,  see  Teachers,  prepara- 
tion of. 

Travel,  as  means  of  education,  46. 

Truancy,  one  cause  for,  271. 

Tuition  fees  abroad,  72;  England,  32,  33, 
34,  129,  135,  note,  136;  in  France, 
93,  100;  in  Germany,  112;  in  high 
schools,  160-161 ;  in  lycecs,  for  girls, 


Index 


789 


100;  now  abolished  almost  everywhere, 
746.     Sec  also  Administration. 

Tuskegee  Institute,  678. 

Tutorial  education,  45,  46,  50. 

Tutors,  duties  of  French,  gi. 

Twiss,  G.  R.,  contributor,  p.  ix,  The 
Natural  Sciences,  446-521. 

Types  of  schools,  agricultural,  673—678. 
Industrial :  apprenticeship,  654  ;  corre- 
spondence, 65,5—654;  evening,  647- 
648;  manual  training,  648-649;  part- 
time,  cooperating  with  industries,  652- 
654;  preparatory  trade,  651-652  ;  sec- 
ondary technical,  655  ;  technical,  648; 
technical  high,  655-656 ;  trade,  649 
651. 

American  high,  219-220 ;  High  School  of 
Commerce,  668-670;  English,  12,3, 
131-132  ;  French,  75,  95  ;  German,  108, 
115-116;  Greek,  22-24;  Middle  Ages, 
30-31;  private,  23,3-243;  Renais- 
sance-Reformation, 38-39,  46-49.  Sec 
also  Administration. 

Uniformity  in  secondary  education,  146- 
148,  747-748;  lack  of,  among  German 
state  systems,  102. 

Union  School  District,  developed  into  high 
school,  63. 

"Unit"  in  science  work  defined,  476. 

United  States,  agricultural  education,  671- 
672;  definition  of  secondary  educa- 
tion, 71  ;  early  schools,  51—68;  Greek, 
418-419;  high  school  organization, 
172-229  (outlined,  pp.  xiv— xvi)  ;  high 
school  systems,  146-172;  household 
arts,  632-637;  industrial  education, 
646-658  ;  Latin,  396,  398,  404  ;  manual 
training,  660— 062  ;  modern  languages, 
432-436;  physical  education,  702- 
703.  See  also  Universal  education. 

United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 
educational  work,  672-673. 

Universal  education,  beginnings  in  America, 
55;  effort  to  attain  secondary,  in 
United  States,  67,  (>8 :  how  obtained 
in  high  schools  of  California,  161  ; 
necessary  in  secondary  education  as 
well  as  in  elementary,  14,  15;  present 
demand  for,  745  ;  present  situation  in 
high  schools,  148. 

University,  influence  on  secondary  educa- 
tion, 6. 

University  Elementary  School,  of  Chicago, 
Ooo. 


Variability,  characteristic  of  adolescence, 
248 ;  of  ideals  during  adolescence, 
291. 

Vernacular,  as  an  element  of  cultural  edu- 
cation, 767 ;  socialized  methods  in 
teaching,  735 ;  structural  side  of 
teaching  the,  360-370.  See  also  Com- 
position ;  Literature. 

Virginia  Mechanics  Institute  of  Richmond, 
647- 

Visual  aids,  history,  564-565 ;  Latin  and 
Greek,  406-407 ;  mathematics,  546- 
547- 

''Vital  capacity,"  training  to  increase,  256. 

Vittorino,  a  tutor,  46 ;  and  the  classics, 
344  ;  and  spiritual  power,  347. 

Vives,  on  method,  43. 

Vocational  education,  analysis  of  aims 
needed,  761-762 ;  conviction  of  its 
necessity,  746 ;  definition,  759 ;  past 
and  present,  757  ;  present  demand  for, 
734 ;  the  question  of  separate  ad- 
ministration of,  77,3 ;  in  relation  to 
moral  training,  331-334;  reorganiza- 
tion based  on  new  aims,  769-770;  so- 
cialized methods  in,  735 ;  scope,  624- 
632,  641-642.  See  also  Agricultural 
education ;  Commercial  education  ; 
Household  arts  education  ;  Industrial 
education ;  Manual  training ;  Voca- 
tional schools. 

Vocational  guidance,  methods  not  yet  sat- 
isfactorily formulated,  737;  moral  ef- 
fect, 333-334;  necessity  recognized, 
Grand  Rapids  scheme  referred  to,  201. 

Vocational  power  as  an  end  of  education, 
746. 

Vocational  schools,  private,  237-239; 
slow  development  in  United  States,  7 ; 
suitable  courses  in  history  for,  558. 
Sec  also  Vocational  education. 
Voice,  changes  during  adolescence,  256 ; 
hygiene  and  training,  256. 

Wagner,  Charles,  quoted,  on  adolescent 
love,  337;  on  sexual  purity,  336-337. 

Washington  University  and  the  St.  Louis 
Manual  Training  School,  661. 

Weight,  increase  during  adolescence,  250- 
252- 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  and  Waterloo,  124. 

Westminster,  English  public  school,  124. 

Whipple,  G.  M.,  contributor,  p.  viii,  Psy- 
chology and  Hygiene  of  Adolescence, 
246-310. 


790 


Index 


Will,  develops  only  through  its  own 
activity,  313-314,  320;  finds  exercise 
only  in  problems,  317-318,  320;  in- 
fluences intellectual  growth,  315- 
316. 

Williamson  Free  School  of  Mechanical 
Trades,  649. 

Winchester,  124. 

Winona  Agriculture  and  Technical  In- 
stitute, Ind.,  678. 

Wissenschaftliche  Prufungs-Kommissionen, 
104. 

Woman's  movement,  educational  aspect  of, 
IS- 

Woodward,  Dr.  C.  A.,  and  the  St.  Louis 
Manual  Training  School,  660. 


Woodworth,  R.  S.,  on  transfer  of  training, 
303- 

Worcester  Girls'  Industrial  School,  624-626. 

Workingmen's  School  of  the  Ethical  Cul- 
ture Society,  New  York,  660. 

Workshop,  a  factor  in  education,  757,  758, 
760. 

Young,  Prof.  J.  W.,  definition  of  mathe- 
matics, 529. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  bicy- 
cling trips,  272 ;  and  technical  in- 
struction, 647. 

Zest  of  life,  334-336. 
Zoology,  see  Biology. 


K     following    pages    contain    advertisements    of 
books  by  the  same  author  or  on  kindred  subjects. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


A  Text-Book  in  the  History  of  Education 

BY   PAUL  MONROE 

Professor  of  the  History  of  Education,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 

Cloth,  cnnvn  Sro,  xxiii  -+-  77.?  pages,  $s.go  net 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  emphasize  the  great  typical  educational  movements  in 
thought  and  practice,  and  to  give  the  student  very  definite  conceptions  of  compara- 
tively few  leaders  rather  than  to  treat  a  multiplicity  of  more  or  less  unrelated  facts 
and  a  multitude,  of  men  with  diverse  ideas.  In  each  general  topic  treated,  enough 
material  is  given  to  elucidate  the  main  characteristics.  The  contributions  of  two 
or  three  of  the  most  representative  men  are  discussed  for  the  same  purpose.  Since 
the  restrictions  of  space  and  the  working  plan  of  the  author  forbid  further  elabora- 
tion, the  text  at  almost  every  point  is  suggestive  rather  than  exhaustively  conclusive. 
A  selected  bibliography  and  a  series  of  questions  or  suggestive  topics  accompany 
each  chapter,  to  assist  the  student  in  further  study.  Chronological  tables  are  given 
in  connection  with  the  more  important  historical  periods,  so  that  the  student  may 
get  a  conspectus  of  the  period  under  consideration,  and  the  relation  of  the  educa- 
tional to  other  aspects  of  historical  development.  A  detailed  analysis  of  the  book 
aids  in  preserving  a  correct  perspective  and  the  proper  relationship  between  the 
various  topics.  The  numerous  illustrations  add  a  realistic  touch  to  the  discussion 
of  the  more  practical  aspects  of  the  subject. 

Brief  Course  in  the  History  of  Education 

BY    PAUL   MONROE,  PnD. 

Cloth,  I2ino,  xviii  +  409  +  i~' pages,  $/.-?5  net 

This  condensation  of  A  Text-Hoof:  in  the  History  of  I-'duc ation  has  been  prepared 
to  meet  the  demands  of  normal  and  training  schools  and  of  those  colleges  that 
have  not  sufficient  time  at  their  disposal  to  master  the  contents  of  a  larger  text. 
\Yhile  the  text  at  every  point  aims  to  be  suggestive  rather  than  exhaustive,  even  in 
this  abbreviated  form  the  volume  contains  more  material  than  most  other  texts  on 
the  subject.  The  methods  of  presentation  are  the  same  as  in  the  larger  work. 

A  Source  Book  of  the  History  of  Education 

FOR    THE  CREEK  A XI)   ROMAN   PERIOD 
BY   PAUL  MONROE 

Cloth,  Svo,  xiii  +  5/5  piiges,  $2.25  net 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


A  Cyclopedia  of  Education 

EDITED  BY  PAUL  MONROE,  PH.D. 

Professor  of  the  History  of  Education,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University; 

Author  of  "  A  Text-Hook  in  the  History  of  Education,"  "  Brief 

Course  in  the  History  of  Education,"  etc. 


Now  completed  in  five  volumes.     Sold  only  by  subscription. 
Price  $5.00  per  volume. 


The  need  of  such  work  is  evidenced:  By  the  great  mass  of  varied  educa- 
tional literature  showing  an  equal  range  in  educational  practice  and  theory; 
by  the  growing  importance  of  the  school  as  a  social  institution,  and  the  fuller 
recognition  of  education  as  a  social  process;  and  by  the  great  increase  in  the 
number  of  teachers  and  the  instability  of  tenure  which  at  the  same  time  marks 
the  profession. 

The  men  who  need  it  are:  All  teachers,  professional  men,  editors,  min- 
isters, legislators,  all  public  men  who  deal  with  large  questions  of  public 
welfare  intimately  connected  with  education  —  everyone  who  appreciates  the 
value  of  a  reference  work  which  will  give  him  the  outlines  of  any  educational 
problem,  the  suggested  solutions,  the  statistical  information,  and  in  general 
the  essential  facts  necessary  to  its  comprehension. 

Among  the  departmental  editors  associated  with  Dr.  Monroe  are  Dr. 
ELMER  E.  BROWN,  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  Prof.  E.  F.  BUCHNER, 
of  Johns  Hopkins,  Dr.  WM.  H.  BTKNHAM,  Clark  University,  M.  GABRIEL 
COMPAVRE,  Inspector-General  of  Public  Instruction,  Paris,  France,  Prof. 
WIUIKLM  Mi'NCH,  of  Berlin  University,  Germany,  Prof.  JOHN  DKWEV,  of 
Columbia  University,  Dr.  ELI.WOOD  P.  Cri;r,KRLV,  Stanford  University,  Cal., 
Prof.  FOSTER  WATSON,  of  the  University  College  of  Wales,  Dr.  DAVID 
SNEDDEN,  Commissioner  of  Education  for  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and 
others. 


Send  for  a  descriptive  circular  and  list  of  contributors 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


COMMENTS  ON  THE   CYCLOPEDIA  OF   EDUCATION 


"  The  appearance  of  the  first  volume  undoubtedly  marks  an  epoch  in 
the  development  of  our  educational  literature."  —  ELMKR  E.  BROWN, 
U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education. 

"  Sets  of  it  ought  to  be  in  every  school  library,  city  and  country,  and 
in  every  public  library,  even  though  small."  —  ELLWOOD  P.  CUBBERLY, 
Professor  of  Education,  Leland  Stanford  University. 

"To  one  who  is  interested  in  problems  of  education  it  is  a  work  of 
great  value  and  interest."--].  H.  COLLINS,  Superintendent  City 
Schools,  Springfield,  Illinois. 

"  The  work  includes  every  aspect  of  education.  Here  is  found,  not 
only  the  information  required  in  a  handy  reference  book  of  cyclopedic 
range,  but  also  an  assemblage  of  systematic  treatises  on  every  phase  of 
the  subject." —  The  Outlook. 

"  The  present  publication  meets  a  real  need  and  will  be  heartily  wel- 
comed, especially  since  its  merit  entitles  it  to  approval  as  a  worthy- 
companion  of  the  German  and  French  educational  encyclopedias."  — 
N.  Y.  Post. 

"  Our  warmest  thanks  are  due  for  this  •  open  sesame,'  this  godsend  to 
all  educators."  —  New  York  Sun. 

"  From  the  subjects  chosen  at  random  as  samples  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  articles  have  been  written  it  is  gratifying  to  note  that  in  aim- 
ing at  conciseness  there  has  been  no  sacrifice  of  clearness  or  precision."1 
—  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

"  This  is  a  masterly  work,  one  long  needed,  and  one  that  will  be 
keenly  appreciated."  — Journal  of  Education. 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


BY  JOHN  FRANKLIN  BROWN,  PH.D. 

Formerly  Professor  of  Education  and  Inspector  of  High  Schools  for  the 
Stale  of  Iowa 

The  American  High  School 

Cloth,  ismo,  462  pages,  $f~?o  net 

"The  American  High  School,"  by  John  Franklin  Brown,  Ph.D.,  is  based  upon 
sound  social  and  psychological  principles,  and  will  be  found  direct,  sane,  and  prac- 
tical. In  a  brief  historical  chapter  the  author  shows  how  the  high  school  came  to 
be  what  it  is,  and  then  passes  to  a  consideration  of  its  function,  the  programme  of 
studies,  equipment,  the  teacher,  the  pupil,  class  exercises,  athletics,  and  other 
equally  pertinent  topics.  In  the  chapter  upon  "  Present  Problems  and  Future 
Development  "  he  emphasizes  the  pressing  needs  of  the  day  and  indicates  a  line  of 
progress.  A  well-selected  bibliography  of  several  hundred  titles  furnishes  the  basis 
for  further  study  and  is  an  exceedingly  valuable  feature  of  the  work.  The  following 
is  a  condensed  table  of  contents  : 

I.  Historical.  II.  The  Function  of  the  High  School.  III.  The  Programme  of 
Studies.  IV.  Organization  and  Management.  V.  Material  Equipment.  VI.  The 
Teacher.  VII.  The  Principal.  VIII.  The  Pupil.  IX.  The  Class  Exercise. 
X.  Government.  XI.  Social  Life.  XII.  The  High  School  and  the  Community. 
XIII.  Present  Problems  and  Future  Development. 

The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Secondary 
Schools  in  Germany  and  the  United  States 

Cloth,  I2mo,  $f.2j  net 


Dr.  Brown  has  served  in  a  Prussian  Oberrealschule  as  exchange  teacher  of 
English  from  the  United  States.  He  has  made  a  special  study  of  German  second- 
ary schools  and  particularly  of  the  methods  of  training  teachers  for  them.  His 
official  position  gave  him  unusual  advantages  for  observation  and  for  gathering  in- 
formation. In  Part  I  of  the  new  book  he  has  given  a  brief  historical  account  of  the 
certification  and  training  of  German  secondary  school  teachers,  together  with  a 
more  extended  account  of  existing  laws,  institutions,  and  methods.  There  is  also 
a  chapter  on  his  impressions  of  the  German  system.  In  Part  II  is  given  briefly  an 
account  of  existing  laws  concerning  the  certification  of  high  school  teachers  in  the 
various  states  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  institutions  for  the  training  of  second- 
ary school  teachers.  This  is  followed  by  the  discussion  of  a  much  needed  higher 
standard  of  training  in  the  United  States,  and  the  presentation  of  a  feasible  plan  for 
the  training  of  American  teachers.  This  plan,  which,  in  the  author's  opinion,  in- 
cludes the  best  features  of  both  the  German  and  the  American  system,  requires 
cooperative  effort  on  the  part  of  college  and  secondary  school  under  the  supervision 
of  the  state. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  American  Secondary  School 
And  Some  of  Its  Problems 

BY  JULIUS   SACHS,   PHD. 

Professor  of  Secondary  Education  in  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 

Cloth,  i2inot  $/.fo  net 
EXTRACT  FROM  THE  PREFACE 

It  has  been  realized  by  the  author  that  it  is  wiser  to  concentrate  attention  upon 
some  of  the  problems  of  the  secondary  school  and  indicate  their  significance  rather 
fully,  than  to  compass  all,  or  even  a  majority,  of  the  questions  that  attach  them- 
selves to  our  system  of  middle  schools.  He  has  subordinated  all  questions  of 
method,  of  curriculum,  to  what  has  appeared  to  him  the  determining  factor  in  a 
secondary  school  system,  the  fitness  of  the  teacher  for  his  task;  the  book  has,  in 
consequence,  become  an  appeal  to  and  for  the  teacher.  It  traverses  many  topics 
which  other  writers  have  found  it  necessary  to  elaborate  into  special  treatises ;  the 
value  of  these  he  does  not  disparage,  though  he  thinks  their  appeal  might  often 
with  profit  be  presented  more  compactly. 

In  accord  with  this  dominating  thought,  there  have  been  added  to  the  body  of 
this  book,  besides  two  excursuses,  a  series  of  outlines  on  The  Teaching  of  several 
subject  groups  in  the  Secondary  School  Course ;  their  object  is  to  rouse  the  indi- 
vidual teacher  to  such  study  of  his  chosen  field  as  will  give  him  the  widest  possible 
survey  of  the  questions  involved  in  the  presentation  of  the  subject. 

CONTENTS 

PART  I 
The  Teacher. 

PART  II 

Chapter       I.     The  Present  Status  of  the  Public  High  School. 
Chapter     II.     The  Private  Secondary  School. 
Chapter  III.     The  Educational  Policy  of  the  Secondary  School. 
Excursus    I.     The  Continuation  School. 
Excursus  II.     The  Function  of  the  Educational  Expert. 

Appendix :  Outlines  for  the  Teaching  of  Certain  Subject  Groups  in  the  Secondary 
School  Course. 


THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  Tork 


Principles  of  Secondary  Education 

BY  CHARLES   DE  GARMO 

Professor  of  the  Sciences  and  Art  of  Education  in  Cornell  University 

IN  THREE  VOLUMES 

Volume  I.  Studies.  (New  and  Enlarged  Edition)  ismo,  $f.2j  net 
Volume  II.  Processes  of  Instruction  ....  I2»io,  $/  .00  net 
Volume  III.  Ethical  Training I2mo,  $1.00  net 

VOLUME  I.  —  "In  his  treatment  of  the  studies  in  secondary  school 
instruction  the  various  chapters  deal  with  the  Bases  for  Selection ; 
Classification  of  Studies  into  Convenient  Groups ;  Function  and  Rela- 
tive Educational  Worth  of  the  Studies  and  Study  Groups  ;  and  the 
Organization  of  Studies  into  Curricula.  Under  each  of  these  subdivi- 
sions the  treatment  is  exhaustive,  lucid  and  fair,  the  author  avoiding 
novelties  and  efforts  at  contributions,  restricting  the  book  to  exposition 
and  to  argument  that  grows  naturally  out  of  analysis."  —  Education, 
Review  of  First  Edition. 

The  appendices  of  the  first  Edition  have  been  omitted  and  six  chapters  upon 
"  Basic  Ideals  for  Educational  Progress "  added.  These  consider  progress  in 
education  from  the  following  standpoints:  prosperity,  health,  general  or  cultural 
education,  special  or  vocational  education,  eugenics  and  euthenics,  and  the  recip- 
rocal relations  that  should  exist  between  individuals  and  social  groups. 

VOLUME  II.  —  "The  first  section  of  the  volume  is  devoted  to  an 
examination  of  the  scientific  basis  for  high  school  methods  ;  the  three 
topics  discussed  are  the  acquisition  of  facts,  the  meaning  of  facts,  and 
forms  of  solution  for  the  problem.  The  second  part  treats  of  scientific 
method  in  high  school  instruction.  .  .  ."  —  Atlantic  Journal  of 
Education . 

VOLUME  III.  —  "The  author  blazes  a  trail  through  ethical  theory  in 
order  that  the  regulative  principles  of  moral  conduct  may  be  made  clear 
and  unmistakable  to  the  young. 

"  To  secure  the  completest  possible  utilization  of  the  agencies  for 
ethical  training  now  available  to  the  American  High  School  is  the 
dominating  purpose  of  the  whole  work.'1 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


MESA 
BRANCH 


DATE  DUE 


loOl 


